Court Opinion

ID: 9562460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:29:42.971255+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:21.836775
License: Public Domain

BARRY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
We have observed that “at a certain point, a school child is so young that it might reasonably be presumed” that the First Amendment does not protect that child’s speech. Walker-Serrano by Walker v. Leonard, 325 F.3d 412, 417 (3d Cir.2003). We have also observed that “[wjhere that point falls is subject to reasonable debate.” Id.
It cannot seriously be a subject of reasonable debate that “that point” is kindergarten. I say this not because Wesley, then age five, could neither read nor write and not because I take issue with his mother’s claim that the Bible is Wesley’s favorite book and not because, at least in my view, Wesley and his kindergarten classmates would have been unable to understand the excerpts from Psalm 118 that his mother sought to read on his behalf, excerpts which tell us what Israel and the House of Aaron say about the Lord’s mercy and note the concept of salvation, a concept I note has been the subject of discussion and debate among biblical scholars for centuries. I say that “that point” is kindergarten because children of kindergarten age are simply too young and the responsibilities of their teachers too special to elevate to a constitutional dispute cognizable in federal court any disagreement over what a child can and cannot say and can and cannot do and what a classmate can and cannot be subjected to by that child or his or her champion.
We send our littlest ones off to school worrying about them and hoping no harm will come to them, but confident in the knowledge that they will be protected and guided and, yes, nurtured by their teachers, who are our surrogates while our children are away. And so I write because I find something unsettling about this case and others like it which, while recognizing the crucial importance of age in determining the extent of the First Amendment’s protections, have not — at least, not yet— carved out an exception for the little ones but, rather, continue to scrutinize and analyze purported violations of the First Amendment rights of children at the pre-K and kindergarten levels. I nonetheless join Chief Judge Scirica’s excellent Opinion because it correctly applies our precedent to the issues before us. Perhaps our next case will tweak that precedent just slightly to accommodate my concerns.