SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A federal appeals court has again reversed the decision of a district judge to dismiss a freedom-of-speech lawsuit over a picture of Jesus in a kindergarten school assignment.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in Peck v. Baldwinsville Central School District that the case should go to trial, saying it was necessary to see whether the poster was censored because of its religious viewpoint.
The three-member appeals court said U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue's decision overlooked evidence that "suggested that the poster was censored ... because it offered a religious perspective on the topic of how to save the environment."
The lawsuit stems from June 1998, when Antonio Peck and his classmates at the Catherine McNamara Elementary School in Baldwinsville, N.Y., were given an assignment to create a poster about the environment.
Antonio, now in sixth grade, turned in a poster with religious images and written references to God and Jesus. School officials rejected it and allowed Antonio to submit a second poster.
The second poster was a crayon drawing of children picking up garbage, with a kneeling man in a flowing robe nearby reaching out his hands to the clouds above. There were no words identifying the figure as Jesus.
School officials displayed the poster, but it was folded in half so the picture of the robed man was not visible. Teacher Susan Weichert and Principal Robert Creme objected to the poster because they said it promoted one religion over another and could offend others.
The Pecks filed a lawsuit in November 1999, accusing school officials and the Baldwinsville Central School District of violating Antonio's First Amendment right to free speech. The family also said the suburban Syracuse school district violated federal guidelines regarding religious expression in public schools.
In dismissing the case the first time, Mordue said Weichert had good reasons for rejecting the poster: It didn't fulfill the assignment, it may not have been Antonio's work and it could have given other parents the impression the school district was teaching religion.
The appeals court overturned that ruling, saying the Pecks were entitled to investigate their claim in court through discovery, including depositions.
Mordue again dismissed the case last fall after ruling the discovery process produced no new evidence that would cause him to rule differently.
The family's attorney said he was "elated" with the appeals court's second reversal.
"Now Antonio will have his day in court," said Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based civil libertarian education and legal defense organization. "To allow a kindergarten poster to be displayed for a few hours on a cafeteria wall, along with 80 other student posters, is far from an establishment of religion."
Baldwinsville Superintendent Jeanne Dangle, who was not superintendent at the time of the incident, said district officials were reviewing the decision.