In the wake of this tragedy, some have asserted that America could avoid similar problems in the future by interjecting religious worship and religious instruction into public schools. This is a profoundly misguided reaction. Public schools must serve children from many different religious and philosophical backgrounds. Mandating religious worship in our public schools will only serve to alienate some students and make them feel like outsiders. This is exactly the wrong message to send at a time like this.
Religion holds an honored place in American society.
In millions of American homes and houses of worship, parents and religious leaders instruct young people in hundreds of different traditions. Government's role is to treat all Americans equally but to otherwise stay out of sensitive and highly personal religious decisions. Requiring religious worship in public schools would violate the rights of conscience of millions of students and their parents, who, by law and by right, are responsible for this area of young people's lives. In the days that have followed the terrible incident in Littleton, a small but vocal minority of religious leaders have garnered national attention by promoting their policy agenda as a panacea for what ails the nation. Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and other Religious Right leaders have worked for years to force their narrow sectarian views into public schools, and it is discouraging and disappointing to see them exploit this recent tragedy to advance a purely political goal.