Connecticut schoolteacher Marisol Arroyo-Castro was suspended without pay and placed on administrative leave, because she displayed a small crucifix at her workspace.
First Liberty and the law firm WilmerHale sent a letter to the New Britain School District demanding that the school reinstate Marisol.
“Requiring a teacher to purge their workspace of anything religious is blatant discrimination that violates the First Amendment,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel Keisha Russell. “The Supreme Court said in the recent Kennedy decision that teachers have the right to engage in personal religious expression under the Free Exercise Clause, including when students are present.”
Marisol has taught in the Connecticut public school system for 32 years. For the last 10 years, she has placed a crucifix by her desk along with other personal items such as student artwork, pictures of her grandchildren, and a church calendar. As a devout Catholic, the crucifix reminds her to pray and helps her remain calm throughout the day as she faithfully teaches her students.
But in December, Marisol was brought into a meeting with the vice principal and abruptly told that unless she removed the crucifix by her desk by 8:00 a.m. the following Monday she would be charged with insubordination. She was then told she needed to put the crucifix in a drawer. The principal also disparaged Marisol’s faith and told her it was just an idol.
A union representative suggested a “compromise” to move the crucifix to a place where the students wouldn’t see it, and the chief of staff said putting it under her desk would be OK. After she did so, Marisol started to sob, feeling as though she “hid it under a bushel,” rather than let her light shine.
After many tears and prayer, she felt her sincere beliefs could not be violated so the next day, she returned the crucifix to its original location. She was then suspended without pay for two-days as the school hoped that she would realize it was in her “best interests” to remove the crucifix or hang it under her desk in a place the school administration called her “private space.” She is now on administrative leave. Because the school district refused to reinstate her and was considering whether to terminate Marisol for “insubordination,” First Liberty and our network attorneys filed a lawsuit, seeking to prevent her termination.
What’s being done to Marisol is blatant discrimination. The school district forced her to hide her crucifix even though other teachers can have personal items at their desks. Other teachers display photos of family and friends, images of Wonder Woman and Baby Yoda, a miniature of the Mona Lisa, New England Patriots football team pennant, inspirational quotes, a photograph of a statue of the Virgin Mary, and a mug referencing a Bible verse.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in our Coach Kennedy case (Kennedy v. Bremerton School District) made it clear that teachers are free to engage in personal expressions of their faith without threat of being fired. The First Amendment does not permit the government to suppress personal religious expression. Legal precedent has long held that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
The school district’s actions are government hostility toward religious expression—which is unconstitutional. They defy the Supreme Court’s recent Kennedy decision. Schools should respect the rich history and tradition of religion in America as affirmed by the Supreme Court rather than punish those who cherish it. School district officials must do what’s right, follow the law and reinstate Marisol to her position.
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