A civil rights group has criticized Hanalei Elementary School administrators for adding religion to the three educational Rs of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union notified school administrators last Friday that the school’s
A civil rights group has criticized Hanalei Elementary School administrators for adding religion to the three educational Rs of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic.
The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union notified school administrators last Friday that the school’s weekly “religious education programs” were in violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.
The program, which is offered every Wednesday for the last 45 minutes of the school day, allows participating students to leave class to travel to nearby places of worship for church-organized presentations.
In its letter, the ACLU said the 90 students — out of the school’s 266 — who attend the program must first have signed permission slips from their parents, and that those forms are handed out by teachers. In addition, students are encouraged to take part in the activity, the ACLU said.
While having teachers distribute the permission slips is cause for concern, Vanessa Chong, executive director of ACLU Hawai-i, said peer pressure to join the classes is a major affront to the students’ freedom.
“These are young children, who are thought of as impressionable and subject to peer pressure,” she said. “We would have some major concerns about that.”
Another issue the organization has with the program is that students who do not participate in the religious education remain in school for what Chong called “unstructured recess time.”
Hanalei principal Barbara Baker said the ACLU is mistaken, and students who choose to remain in school during that time take part in educational activities such as tutoring, physical education and computer classes.
“The teachers say they enjoy working with the smaller groups,” she said. “There is definitely not any down-time for the students.”
Kaua-i District superintendent Daniel Hamada said parents are informed before they sign the permission slips that their students will be taken out of regular instructional time for the religious classes. It’s up to them to make the decision, he said.
“They will be missing some class, and that’s a call the parents have to make,” he said.
Chong said the ACLU, which was alerted to the school’s practice by a student’s parent, was concerned that the alternate activities were a distraction from educational activities that should be taking place.
Deputy state attorney general Russell Suzuki “mentions all these activities, but this is not instructional time,” she said. “I think that still bothers us.”
Suzuki, who sent a response to the ACLU on Monday, said the school has been ordered to stop distributing the permission slips through teachers, but that the religious classes will continue.
“We’ve decided the program itself can continue,” he said.
Baker said her school staff need to know which students have signed up for the program, but that distribution of the required forms will now be handled by the churches and participating children.
“We do have a responsibility to make sure parents have given permission to the children,” she said. “It’ll help us in the office.”
Baker said the two participating churches — Wai-olo Hui-ia Church and St. Williams Church — are close to the school, which allows students to either walk or be driven to the destinations and then return to the campus in time for the end of school.
Based on her conversations with students, there is no peer pressure to attend the religious classes, which are seen as a personal issue for each child, Baker said.
“We don’t feel that in any way our children are being coerced, or that they’re being made to feel they’re missing out,” she said. “We’ve never had any problems with that.”
Hamada said the classes, which have been offered since the 1960s, comply with state Board of Education regulations 2230 and 2230.1. The rules allow for excusing students from class for “a period not to exceed 60 minutes each week” for religious education. The program must also be held during the last period of the day.
“The only thing we can’t do is promote it,” he said.
After changing the distribution of the forms, Suzuki said analyzing the program proved to be a positive step in ensuring the program was compliant with state law.
“It’s good that (the ACLU) raised the issue, because now we’ve looked at it carefully and reassessed ourselves,” he said.
Chong said ACLU officials are unaware of any other schools on Kaua-i or across the state that took part in similar programs, but that she would be interested in finding out if there were.
As the ACLU considers its next course of action, Chong said there have been no Hawai-i court cases regarding school religious programs. If the organization decides to pursue a lawsuit about the issue, it would likely be breaking new legal ground, she said.
“So we may be looking at this for the first time,” Chong said. “But, of course, litigation would always be our last option.”
Staff writer Matt Smylie can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 226) and mailto:msmylie@pulitzer.net
