The rights given to us by the Bill of Rights are some of the most fundamental building blocks upon which this nation builds its idea of liberty. This makes it all the more alarming when those rights are stripped from our citizens. Unfortunately such was the case recently in my hometown of Tomah, at the very high school I attended.

According to an article by the Associated Press, a student at Tomah High School filed a lawsuit, alleging that his freedom of expression has been violated because of a class policy for his art class prohibiting religious beliefs in art.

The catalyst for all this is a landscape drawing from a student, named in the lawsuit as “A.P.”, which featured a cross, a sign reading “John 3:16″ and a religious phrase below the sign. The student received a zero on the project.

Tomah High School is clearly in the wrong on this matter. The student’s artwork is protected under the First Amendment, and the class policy claiming otherwise is simply unconstitutional. As a public school and a state-funded institution, the school has no right to strip anyone of their constitutional rights through their classes, and is even taking a gross mis-step in enforcing a policy that discourages said rights.

As an alumnus of the school in question, I hope the school district corrects the mistake and admits it’s wrong, but it appears that this is going to take a court to decide if they should.

I applaud A.P. in that he was willing to call out the school district on their violation of his rights. This can be a valuable lesson as a society to keep our eyes open and make sure that we keep the public institutions that police us, govern us and even educate us, in check. While not everyone’s perfect, it is this system of checks and balances that allows us to grow as a society.