Even though a judge has ruled the Everett School District was on solid ground when it banned from a high school graduation an instrumental song it deemed religious, a former student isn’t giving up her legal fight.
Kathryn Nurre, a 2006 Henry M. Jackson High School graduate, contends the district violated her free speech and religious rights and plans to appeal the recent ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik.
Graduating seniors in the school’s wind ensemble had selected for commencement an instrumental version of Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria,” which derives its name from a Catholic prayer and translates to “Hail Mary” in Latin.
District administrators balked, saying that musical selections for graduation should be “entirely secular.”
Lasnik sided with the school district.
“In light of the significance of graduation, it is rational that school administrators would strive to avoid things that offend in order to structure a ceremony for all students and families,” he wrote.
Nurre’s supporters say it’s a case of political correctness run amok.
“It’s ridiculous,” said John Whitehead, president and founder of the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute, a conservative legal organization that specializes in religious rights cases and represented Nurre.
The wind ensemble students chose “Ave Maria” for its artistic beauty and not as a means to promote religion, he said.
The fact is, it’s an instrumental song and most people don’t even know what “Ave Maria” means, he said.
“They aren’t promoting or proselytizing,” he said. “It’s free speech, folks. Let’s lighten up. Let’s have fun. And you wonder why kids are apathetic today?”
Students had played “Ave Maria” during a winter concert without dispute, but district leaders drew a distinction between a concert and commencement.
“My rationale is based on the nature of the event,” wrote the district’s associate superintendent Karst Brandsma in an e-mail cited by the judge. “It is a commencement program in celebration of senior students earning their high school diploma. It is not a music concert. Music selections should add to the celebration and should not be a separate event.”
School district officials had little to say about Lasnik’s ruling.
“We believe that it will be affirmed again if the Rutherford Institute in Virginia plans to support an appeal,” said Mary Waggoner, a school district spokeswoman. “We will allow the legal processes to continue without comment through the time remaining for them to consider filing an appeal and through any further action that might ensue.”
Nurre, now a 19-year-old college student interested in a law career, said she hopes the case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It is true all of us just picked the piece because we liked how it sounded,” she said. “We had pretty much mastered it. It was just a piece of music.”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
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