Parents who objected to their school district’s ban on religious language won an unexpected victory from a Texas judge this week, who ruled that the ban amounted to unnecessary censorship on private speech.
Superintendent Kevin Weldon forbid cheerleaders at Kountze High School (KHS) in Beaumont, Tex., from displaying Bible verses on signs at KHS football games. However, parents filed suit against the district and obtained a temporary restraining order allowing their children to use the banners.
Weldon told KHOU, Houston-area radio station that, as a state employee, he could not permit the banners, even though he is Christian.
“I was advised that such a practice (religious signs) would be in direct violation of United State Supreme Court decisions,” Weldon said.
“The cheerleading squad is clearly a school-sponsored group representing the school at the football game,” he told KHOU. “The religious banners, therefore, send a message of school endorsement of religion.”
