Religion-free zone?

Ignorance of the protection the law grants to the place of religion in schools, adds Haynes, too often fosters "the reputation that public schools are hostile to religion, and that's not good for public schools or their future."

Claudia Wehmann, an English teacher at Mount Healthy High School in suburban Cincinnati, agrees. Asked to develop a new English elective at her public school a few years ago, she wondered about teaching "Bible and Literature" but thought, "I can't do that." But, Ms. Wehmann began researching the question of religion in class, and says she was surprised to discover that groups from the American Civil Liberties Union to the National Council of Teachers of English supported her right to teach the Bible in a nonreligious fashion.

She even went back and read "Abington v. Schempp," the 1963 Supreme Court ruling best remembered today for outlawing the use of the Lord's Prayer in a school's morning exercises. But the court decision also states: "Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment."

It's a point of view Wehmann fears most public school teachers have lost sight of. Even her students, Wehmann says, are still occasionally astounded by her free talk about the Bible and sometimes ask whether she can really talk about it in school.

Wehmann says she knows of no other teacher in the greater Cincinnati area offering a class in Bible literature, but that colleagues at Mount Healthy often thank her for doing so, saying they believe the class has filled in significant gaps in student knowledge.

But if teachers haven't been given much instruction by administrators about such rights, that may be in part because most principals and superintendents are simply too busy processing too much information to worry about anything that isn't an immediate crisis.

"The sheer volume of guidance coming from the federal government on all kinds of topics is overwhelming," says Mr. Hutton, who suggests that many administrators - despite the mailing - are still not aware of the Bush guidelines and possible funding cutoff.

In some communities, advocacy groups have already approached schools to discuss the guidelines, Hutton says. But he believes many others will become aware only if a school is actually threatened with a funding loss.

When it comes to the new guidelines, "Somebody somewhere will make a mistake," says Bruce Hunter, director of government relations for the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va. With 3 million teachers and 90,000 public schools, he predicts, "It's bound to happen."

It may have happened already. In Las Vegas, the Clark County Schools already had in place a policy permitting students to include religious material at ceremonies like graduation. But this spring, the school board voted to change the policy to bring it more fully in line with the Bush administration's religious guidelines, despite the school system's location within the Ninth Circuit Court - a court that has ruled against such speech at school ceremonies.

Sheila Moulton, president of the Clark County school board, says she is comfortable with the board's decision. "We wanted the students to have some freedom to mention a deity - not in a proselytizing way - but to express gratitude," she says.

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