Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, allows their senior students the freedom to decorate their parking spaces. However, religion is listed on their guidelines of prohibited messages, on the same lines as offensive, gang-related, or political messages.
First Liberty reports that Sophia Shumaker, a senior at Rampart, initially planned to paint a shepherd one a hill with a Bible verse. After that was rejected, she asked if she could just have 1 Corinthians 13:4, but that was still not allowed.
Keisha Russell is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute. She says that Rampart school officials banned Shumaker's idea because it was religious.
"Very rarely are they worried about someone saying something rude or offensive. It's usually because they don't want anyone saying something religious," informs Russell.
The verse itself simply states, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”
This is similar to a previous story reported by AFN where senior Sabrina Steffans at Grand Island Senior High School in New York was also prohibited from having a religiously decorated parking space. With assistance from First Liberty Institute, Steffans was allowed to have her original design in place.
First Liberty is also getting involved with Russell’s situation, sending a demand letter to the superintendent of Rampart school’s district to reevaluate their guidelines. Regardless of the school policy, Russell says that they're encouraging Shumaker to paint what she wants.
"We're asking that the school would open up the opportunity for Sophia to go and repaint her spot with the religious imagery that she feels properly conveys her religious convictions, and we'll see what they say. We'll try and work it out as amicably as possible," states Russell.
Russell insists that there's no way they can deny Sophia's intention because they cannot censor religious speech without violating the First Amendment.
