by Jayla Ward • 2 minutes
This week, First Liberty sent a demand letter on behalf of a Colorado senior after her school rejected her design for her parking spot. Sophia Shumaker is a strong Christian who loves to express her faith through artwork and was devastated when the school rejected the designs for her parking space.
Sophia was inspired by our client Sabrina Steffans. After First Liberty helped Sabrina paint her paid parking space with her faith-centered designs, Sophia called First Liberty asking if we could defend her right to have faith-based imagery and Bible verses on her paid parking space at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs.
At the beginning of the school year, Sophia, as an expression of her Christian faith, submitted a design inspired by the 23rd Psalm that included a shepherd with a staff on a hill tending sheep. Keisha Russell, Senior Counsel at First Liberty, said the school is wrong.
“It is unconstitutional for the school to reject Sophia’s parking space design due to its religious imagery,” she explained. “The Constitution protects private, religious speech—even when it occurs on public school property. The school’s policy violates both the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause because it targets Sophia’s speech because of its religious viewpoint.”
According to school guidelines, designs must not include “offensive, negative, rude, gang-related, political, religious, or trademarked images.” The school considers images on students’ parking spaces to be “government speech,” not personal speech, denying Sophia the opportunity to live out her faith.
But, if other seniors can express themselves in a unique way with messages of their choosing, Sophia should be treated the same. She has every right to express her faith. What she displays on her parking spot is her private speech. Students don’t give up their First Amendment rights at school. A student’s private religious expression is constitutionally protected even when it occurs on school property.
That legal protection is nothing new. It’s what the Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines more than 50 years ago. And it’s what the Court reaffirmed recently in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. Teachers and students are free to express their faith without threat of being censored or punished.
In our letter, First Liberty attorneys are making a simple request: let Sophia add a Scripture and cross to her current space.
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