Assignment 6: Karen White v.

Bill Ward 1

Karen White v. School District

Samantha Stepzinski

College of Southern Nevada

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Abstract

When you become a teacher, it is your job to make sure that the students feel as if they’re

being cared for and taught the proper education. Nowhere in any teacher’s handbook does it say

that you must abide by following traditional holiday themes or even setting up a cute classroom.

The theatrics that come with teaching, although appreciated, aren’t always a necessity to create a

proper and fun learning environment. In the case of Karen White v. Bill Ward, Ms. White is

being dismissed because Mr. Ward doesn’t believe that she is capable of properly doing her job

because she cannot decorate her classroom based upon traditional holiday styles due to her recent

conversion as a Jehovah’s Witness. Ms. White is suing because she doesn’t believe her dismissal

from school was legal.

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Pro Ms. White

Religion is an incredibly controversial topic in the real world and having to handle it on a

smaller scale in a school can be quite a challenge. Many teachers are ostracized for reading from

the Bible and discussing sermons in class because it’s simply not an ethical choice to make. In

the case of Ms. White, she’s doing the opposite. Karen is, according to her religion, not allowed

to decorate/celebrate traditional holidays; she doesn’t make the rules, she is merely following the

laws that a Jehovah’s Witness must follow. Teacher’s are not allowed to remove students from

the classroom and have them sit somewhere else while they sit in their classroom reading from

their Bible/Torah/etc. (Fink v. Board of Education, 1982). Ms. White is simply following the

rules in that Christmas, for example, is technically a Christian-based holiday and therefore in

retrospect should not be celebrated in the classroom amongst the students.

One of the beliefs that being a Jehovah’s Witness follows is not reciting the Pledge of

Allegiance. It goes against their religion in that the phrase follows the lines of One Nation, Under

God, and because Jehovah’s Witness’ don’t follow the traditional concept of God that the phrase

was written in they cannot salute the flag. In no way can a school force a teacher to salute the

flag, nor make his/her students abide by it (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette,

1943). If Ms. White doesn’t want to have her students salute the flag, it is well within her legal

right to not salute it. Regardless, she’s not the one reciting the pledge, her students are. It’s also

well within their right that if they don’t want to salute it, they don’t have to. The school cannot

use this as an excuse to remove her for ineffectively forcing her students.
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Con Ms. White

Although students aren’t the ones creating the curriculum being taught, they have a right

to make sure their interests are prevailing. By celebrating holidays such as Christmas and Easter,

students can express themselves and feel comfortable in their classrooms. Students also have the

right to be free from religious indoctrination (Roberts v. Madigan, 1990). By Ms. White not

allowing the students to celebrate these holidays, she is pushing her own religion upon her

students. The students are suffering in that they aren’t getting the chance to experience the true

joy that holidays such as Christmas and Easter can bring to someone; it’s incredibly cruel for Ms.

White to be imposing such pain and suffering on her students.

Schools have always fought against the status quo from allowing religion into the

classroom. Bibles were banned from being read, you couldn’t teach the children sermons, and

more (Abington School District v. Schempp, 1963). By allowing Ms. White to not celebrate regular

holidays, she’s forcing her classroom to remain unneutral to religious topics and events. This

forces her to pick a side, and she’s choosing to side with a religious denomination, which is not

allowed.

I understand that most people love the holidays. Getting the chance to decorate your

classroom depending on what the theme of that month is can be an amazing and uplifting thing;

it is not a necessity. You do not need to decorate your classroom in Christmas or Easter

decorations to be a good teacher. There are other ways to create a warm and loving environment

that supports and promotes growth through the students. By allowing a religious based event into

her classroom, such as Christmas, Ms White is actually defying the law set in Fink v. Board of

Education: forcing students to be subjected to see holidays that aren’t a mandatory topic in the

classroom. Additionally, by trying to say that Ms. White isn’t giving her students the proper
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school experience because she’s not forcing them to say the Pledge of Allegiance defies the

ruling of West Virginia State BoE v. Barnette in that it’s not a requirement for students to recite

the pledge. In conclusion, I very strongly believe that Ms. White would not only crush her case,

she should be paid restitution for the emotional and mental damages she’s faced.
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References

Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963)

Fink v. Board of Education, 65 Pa.Commw. 320 (1982)

Roberts v. Madigan, 921 F.2d 1047 (1990)

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 US 624 (1943)