POWAY, Calif.—
A Poway high school teacher is fighting his school district in court over banners that have hung in his classroom for more than two decades.Bradley Johnson, a math teacher, had two banners hanging in his Westview High School classroom that contained references to "God."
Johnson said the banners, which have "In God we trust," "One nation under God," "God bless America" and "God Shed His Grace On Thee" printed on red, white and blue stripes, have been in his classrooms for more than 25 years.
"More than 4,000 students have been in my classroom and I've never had a complaint about what they say," he said.
In 2006, Johnson received a complaint from another teacher, and the principal asked him to take the banners down. He obeyed, but he didn't take the request lightly.
"I spoke with the team at Thomas More Law Center and filed a suit against the school district," Johnson said.
After a long court battle, the case came to a pause in 2008, when a federal judge ruled removing the banners would be violating Johnson's First Amendment rights. The banners were put back in place, but the fight with the school district wasn't over. The district recently filed an appeal and in July will make their claim to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Jack Seeth, an attorney for the school district, said the issue is who sets overall classroom policy.
"The school controls the speech of a teacher during class time, and teachers should not be able to endorse one specific religion in their classroom," Seeth said.
For now, Johnson has been allowed to keep his banners up during the appeals process .
"Every day in class, we say the pledge of allegiance, "One nation under God." Are those real values that we have, or are those just comments that we say?" Johnson said. "I believe they're values that we have as a nation share, and I want to honor those values."
