New York student wins battle to display Christian imagery, Bible verses in school parking space

A Christian student has won a legal dispute with her public school over her constitutional rights to free speech and religious exercise.

Every year, the Grand Island Central School District (GICSD) in New York allows senior high school students to reserve and decorate a parking space, as long as the design is approved by school staff.

Senior Sabrina Steffans wanted to take part in the school tradition and decorate her space with Christian imagery and Bible verses.

However, district leadership told her she wasn’t allowed to express religious beliefs.

“I put in three drawings that I did, and the first drawing was a drawing of this mountain called Salvation Mountain,” Steffans told the Christian Broadcasting Network. “And when I handed it in, they said … completely no to it because it had crosses, a Bible verse, and just a lot of religion that they said that wasn’t allowed.”

Steffans submitted two more designs, and GICSD agreed to the final one, watered-down version, which she explained, “had no Bible verses, no crosses, or anything.” 

So she joined forces with First Liberty, a legal group specializing in defending religious freedoms.

On Aug. 12, First Liberty sent GICSD a letter arguing the district’s actions were unconstitutional.

“Because the school permits various forms of secular personal student expression, the school’s policy prohibiting Ms. Steffans from expressing her connection to particular scripture references violates her constitutional rights to free speech and free exercise of religion,” it read.

It also alleged a school official told Steffans, “If we had to approve your cross, we’d have to approve a Satanic symbol, and I wouldn’t want to attend a school like that.”

But despite the district’s guidelines to maintain a “neutral stance on religious, political, and ideological content,” First Liberty said it had no right to censor the private speech of its student.

“The history and tradition of our nation allow for the private expression of faith in public forums like this,” explained Keisha Russell, senior counsel for First Liberty. “The school is simply wrong to censor her design.”

On Aug. 20, it was announced GICSD had backpedaled and would allow Steffans to display her original and explicitly Christian design.

“The First Amendment protects students’ private expressions of faith in public schools,” Russell said. “We are pleased that the school district changed course and will allow Sabrina to truly express her deeply held beliefs.”

Image courtesy of First Liberty.