"Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without spiritual life"-Buddha. This statement is very true for lots of people around the world, yet students have to hide their spiritual lives almost everyday. There are multiple stories when students and teachers have gotten in trouble for expressing their religion in schools around the nation. In some schools there are may not be rules banning the expression of religion, but students still get in trouble for doing this. This should not continue. Students and teachers should be allowed to freely express religion in public schools.

As members of the human race and as Americans we have rights that allow us to express religion, and for schools to prohibit us from expressing religion is unjust. The Declaration of Human rights says that we have freedom of expression. The 19th right states that we can make our own decisions speak our minds and spread what we think to others. For schools to prohibit us from expressing religion violates our right. Also, in America the 1st amendment of the Bill of Rights addresses freedom of religion and that we can believe what we want to believe, and that we don't have to hide it from others. When schools make rules that we can't express religion they are not following the ideas of the constitution. Our founding fathers encouraged expression of whatever religion we believed in and we should follow what they wanted for our country. "Religion is as necessary to reason as reason is to religion. The one cannot exist without the other...." - George Washington. As George Washington said reason can't exist without religion. He wanted our nation to have both reason and religion, and schools everywhere should follow what he wanted for our nation. We deserve the right to show what we believe everywhere we go. Going to school to learn shouldn't stop us from doing that. To conclude, students and teachers have rights to express religion in schools (Matching Quotes by George Washington), (United Nations Declaration of Human Rights).

Next, schools shouldn't tell us how to live. When we go to school to schoolboard shapes us into good students that are prepared for college. We shouldn't have to be their vision of perfect, we should just have to be who we are. People that make school decisions don't want us to express religion because it could cause problems and religion won't prepare us for college. When we come to school we shouldn't have to lose sight of who we are. Not just the part some people want to see. Not expressing religion makes us hide a major part of our personalities. School should be a place where we get to show our true personality in front of our peers and teachers. According to Doug Huntington of "The Christian Post" 12 students that go to Heritage High School in Vancouver, Washington were suspended for leading a prayer group in school. They wanted to induce a club where students could pray after school, but they were turned down by their assistant principal. They then conducted the prayer meetings in the cafeteria but were exposed by a Satanist student and were suspended. These students got suspended for being who they were and expressing what they believe in. These kinds of stories you come across on the news shouldn't happen anymore because religion should be freely expressed in all schools.

Furthermore, religion is a special and holy thing to a numerous amount of people. It is the way that many people around the world live their lives. Students and teachers should be allowed to share this part of themselves just like everyone else. I have noticed that not all students are treated equally by the schools in terms of religion. Some religions such as Muslims or Jewish men that wear different kinds of head coverings which is apart of their religion, yet if a Christian were to wear a cross necklace or a shirt they got from their church they would be told to tuck it in or take it off. In Dyer County High school Kendra Turner was ordered to the principal's office for saying "bless you" in class after someone sneezed. She was sent to in school suspension for the remnant of the class period. This student got in trouble for saying something that she was always taught to say. However, in multiple schools other students are allowed to wear head coverings because it is what their religion has always taught them to do. This shows that schools could be discriminating religions. Because of this, all religions should freely express their religion in school (Associated Press).

You may be thinking that schools already allow students and teachers to express religion. You may see people going to school with cross necklaces and other said items. However, you don't see the teacher tell the student to remove it. Even though expressing religion in school is very important, schools are still skeptical of whether or not they should. Schools may be concerned that students would get offended. However, if everyone was permitted to express religion it would be fair to all students even if they don't believe the same things. For example, my group of friends all have different opinions on religion and we have discussions about it a lot but we all know what each other believes and we still accept each other no matter the religion difference. There are also ways to prevent people from getting overly angered . For example, there can be rules that don't tolerate students degrading others' religions. Then, students would get punished if they did degrade other students' religion which would deter students from getting antagonized and hurt.

To conclude, religion should be freely expressed in schools. Students should not have to hide their religion anymore. School takes place for about 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, and for about 10 months of the year. This is a lot of time spent hiding religion and this needs to stop Religion is a part of who you are and like Buddha said, "… men can't live without spiritual life" and students and teachers shouldn't have to live without their spiritual lives just because they strive for education.

Work Cited:

"12 Students Suspended for Praying at School." Christian Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

"George Washington Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

"Tennessee Teen in Trouble for Saying 'bless You' after Sneeze." The Tennessean. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.

"United Nations Declaration of Human Rights." United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2015.