{"id":13601,"date":"2025-08-21T12:13:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T16:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=13601"},"modified":"2025-08-21T12:13:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T16:13:01","slug":"school-refuses-to-let-christian-student-decorate-personal-parking-spot-with-bible-verses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/08\/school-refuses-to-let-christian-student-decorate-personal-parking-spot-with-bible-verses.html","title":{"rendered":"School Refuses to Let Christian Student Decorate Personal Parking Spot With Bible Verses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: First Liberty Institute | Right: grandislandschools.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Christian student is threatening legal action after her school wouldn\u2019t allow her to decorate her paid parking spot with Bible verses. Sabrina Steffans, a senior at Grand Island High School near Buffalo, New York had her own paid parking spot at the school According to Steffans, students at the school are allowed to decorate their paid spots. However, when Steffens attempted to decorate her spot with Bible verses, she was met with resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put in three drawings that I did, and the first drawing was a drawing of this mountain called Salvation Mountain. And when I handed it in, they said \u2026 completely no to it because it had crosses, a Bible verse, and just a lot of religion that they said that wasn\u2019t allowed,\u201d Steffans told CBN<\/em>.<\/a> A second design was also denied, with the design containing a Bible verse. Her third design, which was clear of any crosses and Bible verses, was finally approved. According to Steffans, the school considered the wording \u201cgovernment speech,\u201d meaning her Bible verses could prohibit the establishment clause.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time Steffans has experienced pushback from the school over religious depictions. Steffans also runs her school\u2019s Bible club and says she has had issues with the school not wanting to advertise the club. She has now enlisted the help of First Liberty. First Liberty insists the school\u2019s denials violate Steffans\u2019s First Amendment rights. \u201cSabrina is the only one who can\u2019t choose for herself the message that she wants on that parking space. And that\u2019s just viewpoint discrimination,\u201d said First Liberty attorney Keisha Russell. \u201cThe Supreme Court has said repeatedly that religious speech is doubly protected by the Constitution under the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.\u201d<\/p>\n

First Liberty sent a letter<\/a> to the Superintendent, accusing the school of \u201cunconstitutional censorship.\u201d \u201cThe Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment requires public school officials to be neutral in their treatment of religion, showing neither favoritism toward nor hostility against religious adherents\u2026 Accordingly, the First Amendment forbids religious activity that is sponsored by the government but protects religious activity that is initiated by individuals acting on their own behalf,\u201d wrote First Liberty. \u201cThe Court has explained that \u2018there is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Superintendent Brian Graham spoke with The Christian Post<\/em><\/a> about the demand letter. \u201cThe Grand Island Central District received an 11-page letter on Tuesday from a Utah attorney working with a national religious liberty organization. We obviously need time to review, digest, and discuss it,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile we do so, we’re happy to pause the deadline for students to complete their parking space designs. We hope to have an update once our process is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Christian student is threatening legal action after her school wouldn\u2019t allow her to decorate her paid parking spot with Bible verses. Sabrina Steffans, a senior at Grand Island High School near Buffalo, New York had her own paid parking spot at the school According to Steffans, students at the school are allowed to decorate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":13604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSchool Refuses to Let Christian Student Decorate Personal Parking Spot With Bible Verses<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A senior is fighting back after her school banned Bible verses from her paid parking spot, sparking a First Amendment battle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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