Lawyers demand northern Virginia school district allow teacher to quote Bible verse in email: ‘Discrimination’

A high school teacher in Virginia was allegedly told to remove Bible verses from her work email signature, prompting a demand letter from her lawyers alleging violation of her First Amendment rights.

The unidentified teacher in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) reportedly first had John 3:16 in her email signature, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

When the school objected, she offered to change it to Proverbs 22:6, an Old Testament verse that states, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

That verse was also prohibited because it was from the Bible, according to a statement Tuesday from Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver.

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“Loudoun County Public Schools cannot discriminate against a teacher who wants to use a Bible verse in her signature when other teachers are including nonreligious quotes,” he said.

Richard L. Mast and Hugh C. Phillips of Liberty Counsel sent a letter to Acting Superintendent Daniel Smith March 23 alleging that LCPS violated both the First Amendment and its own school district policy prohibiting religious discrimination and demanded that the teacher be permitted “to restore the Bible verse to her email signature block.”

“The directive from LCPS to [the teacher] to remove an expression of her personal faith from her email signature block, based solely on its perceived religious nature, constitutes religious discrimination,” the lawyers wrote.

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“The District permits teachers to personalize their signature blocks with personally-selected pronouns, quotations, pictures or phrases that are intended to express the teachers’ personal views on a variety of subjects, and that are attributable to the teachers, and not necessarily to LCPS.”

A spokesperson for LCPS said they were unable to comment on personnel matters, but Smith replied to Mast and Phillips in a letter that claimed the teacher’s use of a Bible verse in her school email violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“[The teacher] may make occasional personal use of School Division technology, including her email address, for non-work purposes when this use does not consume a significant amount of LCPS resources, does not interfere with her job performance or other School Division responsibilities, and is otherwise in compliance with LCPS policies,” Smith wrote.

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“It is my understanding, however, that [she] is not including religious quotes in only her private correspondence, but also uses these religious quotes in her communications to students and their parents in her capacity as an LCPS employee. These communications are not private expression, but rather constitute school-sponsored speech bearing the ostensible endorsement of the School Division.”

“LCPS currently permits its employees to personalize their LCPS email signature blocks. As a public employer, LCPS has an interest in regulating the speech of its employees, particularly as such expressed speech imputes to LCPS’s general endorsement thereof,” Smith continued.

Liberty Counsel pushed back against Smith’s assertions, claiming LCPS does not have a written policy regulating email signature blocks and that his claim about the Establishment Clause was erroneous, citing Supreme Court precedent. They maintained the school policy Smith cited solely prohibits the use of vulgar or obscene language.

LCPS has been at the forefront of the national debate over transgender ideology and critical race theory in public schools, having repeatedly made headlines for contentious school board meetings between parents and school administrators.