The debate over the right to free speech versus the separation of church and state was sparked last week at Mount Abraham Union High School in Bristol. That’s because two students placed a statue of Jesus in a school walkway and the principal ordered it removed.
Principal Paulette Bogan says the statue violated school policy that says public displays should highlight academic work or be designed to education and inform the school community.
Junior Torin Olivetti and senior Galem Helms, the students behind the display, say it was an academic exercise, a social experiment designed to see how well the school respects their free-speech rights.