The Battleground Teachers play a critical role in America. Aside from parents, teachers form the link between our past and future. 2 Over the years since John Dewey, public schools have become secularized.
Many teachers have the mistaken view that religion is forbidden on public campuses.
B. Teacher as Individual and State Agent Teachers are both individual citizens and agents of the state. 3 Since teachers are both individuals and agents of the state, the First Amendment serves to protect their freedom of speech and free exercise of religion, and to prohibit them from establishing religion. The Supreme Court has interpreted the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to essentially mean that government must remain neutral in matters of religion. In other words, government may neither actively promote, nor affirmatively oppose, religion. In the context of a public school teacher, to be neutral is to be objective.