Letter: School District right to limit grad’s speech

Tuesday, June 27, 2006 | 8:36 a.m.

The Clark County School District is being criticized in national media for complying with the U.S. Constitution. At a Foothill High School graduation ceremony, Brittany McComb was prevented from using an unapproved talk promoting her religious belief.

The School District, by providing McComb with the opportunity to give a talk to other graduates, acted appropriately by not allowing her to proselytize others at the graduation ceremony. McComb's free speech and religious rights were certainly not violated. She has a right to speak freely and practice her religion anywhere in her church, her home and even on a public street. But the school should not endorse her religious proselytizing by providing her with the equipment, the place and the audience.

I wonder what the public outcry would have been if McComb was prevented from saying she owes her graduation to Satan or if she tried to say her mind was not cluttered with religion and her lack of belief in God was responsible for her high grades? Would her free speech rights have been violated if she was not allowed to promote racial or ethnic hatred? In each of these cases the School District would prevent her from continuing and would probably be praised for doing so.

The First Amendment requires separation of church and state, which includes a prohibition of governmental endorsement of religious beliefs and practices. This requirement protects religions as well as individuals who may not hold the same religious beliefs as the majority. This same amendment assures that McComb can freely express her religious beliefs anywhere, but that she cannot expect the government school to assist her in that expression.

Mel Lipman, Las Vegas

Editor's note: The writer is president of the American Humanist Association.