What about the First Amendment? School prohibits student from including popular Bible verse in project

Somerset Academy student could not include John 3:16 in report about herself.

Sixth-grader Mackenzie Fraiser initially planned to include the famous Bible verse John 3:16 as an inspirational quote for her school PowerPoint presentation. However, she was discouraged after in an earlier assignment about self-esteem, the same teacher has now prohibited them from including anything from the Scripture. After learning about the situation, her parents decided to contact the school for further clarifications. The schools stands with teacher, finalizing the decision.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - "We were talking about [that], as a Christ follower, she gets her self-esteem from being made in the image of God. She was kind of leery if [she] had said anything about God [that she] was going to be in trouble," said Tim Fraiser, the 12-year-old's father, in an interview with The Blaze.

The earlier assignment was a report on self-esteem while the latter was an "All About Me" presentation, which for her are both personal and it is important to emphasize God's role in her life as a Christian. Mr. Fraiser, a pastor for the Grace Point Church in North Las Vegas, Nevada, emailed his daughter's teacher on the matter.

"Bible verses or quotations from the Book of Mormon" were the alleged words of the teacher. Through the email, the pastor asked Ms. Jardine, Mackenzie's teacher, if she really had told the class not to include any statement from the Bible, hoping that it was just an issue of miscommunication and misinterpretations.

However, Mr. Fraiser received a response from the assistant principal of Somerset Academy, Jenyan Martinez, explaining that his daughter did not misinterpret the instructions given by the teacher.

According to the response from Martinez, Ms. Jardine was following school expectations, not allowing any religious discussion within the class, which is considered a captive audience.

But according to Atty. Jeremy Dys, the argument is wrong.

"When students go to school they do not lose their First Amendment rights. It chilled her speech and, as such, what the school is teaching these kids right now is that it is wrong to reference their faith at school. If they don't apologize for this mistake... then the lesson that these students will take away is that it is wrong to reference their faith in school."

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