Utah Choir Defies Court, Sings Barred Religious Tunes

A Jewish student in Utah thought she had won her battle to keep religious music out of her high school’s graduation ceremony.

In the end, many parents and students defied a court order and sang anyway.

The choir, including sophomore Rachel Bauchman, had finished singing the two secular songs that replaced that religious ones the court had barred from the June 7 ceremony.

Then, graduating senior Will Badger approached the microphone to plead for the song.

He said, "Friends," one of the banned songs, had been a tradition at West High School in Salt Lake City for more than five years.

Badgers proceeded to lead the audience and students in song. Police led Badger from the stage after finishing the song. School officials tried in vain to stop the student rebellion.

In a telephone interview from her home, the 16-year-old Bauchman, who had been called "Jew bitch" and "dirty Jew" by fellow students for taking legal action to bar the songs, and her parents said the incident was "a shame."

"It’s a shame that graduation was ruined not by Rachel but by the students who were complaining she was ruining it. It’s shame that the students went in direct violation of the court order," Cheryl Bauchman, Rachel’s mother, said.

The incident comes as the debate over school prayer is heating up on Capitol Hill.

Last week, one day after the Salt Lake City graduation, Congress opened hearings to explore a "religious equality amendment," a proposal put forth by the Christian Coalition that would, among things, sanction student-led school prayer at public high school graduations.

Although she and her mother walked out of the graduation at the end of the song, Rachel Bauchman said she felt "very uncomfortable" while it was being sung.

"I had 4,000 pairs of eyes staring at me," she said. "I felt like a second- class citizen. Like I wasn’t welcome in my own school choir."

Last week’s incident was the latest chapter in a battle over religious lyrics in the choir class that Bauchman has been waging against her school since October.

When the school did not respond to her concerns, she decided to go to court.

Bauchman filed a suit in U.S. District Court last week, alleging that the school’s choir class violated her constitutional rights by continuously performing religious songs.

The suit included a temporary restraining order asking that two songs, "Friends" and "May the Lord Bless You and Keep You," not be sung at the June 7 ceremony.

A U.S. District Court Judge denied the order, but his decision was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver just one day before the ceremony.

Arguing that the songs were aesthetic, not religious, West High School officials had said Bauchman could be excused from the graduation performance.

Her lawyers dismissed that option, saying it cheated Bauchman out of a school event and could affect her standing in the choir class, for which she receives credit and a letter grade.

In court documents, Bauchman’s lawyers disputed the school’s claim that the songs were not religious, calling "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," "a straightforward prayer," and quoting from "Friends."

"Friends" includes the lines" "Friends are friends forever if the Lord’s the Lord of them" and "In the Father’s hands we know that a lifetime’s not too long to live as friends."

Last Friday, a spokesman for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which had issued the order banning the songs, said the students did not violate the ban because the order had only named the school board and the choir director, not the students.

The Bauchmans "may have some other cause of action against the students, but nothing stemming from any action in this court," said Patrick Fisher, court clerk.

"As far as we can tell, the school board and the choir director complied and did not sing the songs," he added.

The seniors in the choir who sang cannot be disciplined because they have already graduated, but the choir’s underclass members could face disciplinary action, said Sherri Clark, a spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City School District.

The students were told at graduation rehearsal earlier in the day not to sing those songs, Clark said, but "there were rumors flying around" that something might happen.

The District Court, meanwhile, will schedule a trial to determine whether the choir can continue to sing such songs. A trial date has not been set.

As a member of the school’s choir class, Bauchman has continually been put in the position of having to sing predominately religious songs at numerous programs, including a Christmas program, Cheryl Bauchman said.

"If there was more of a balance" in the choir’s choice of songs, "she would have been OK," she said of her daughter.

In one incident, the class toured the country to sing at witnessing ceremonies for Mormons. The Jewish students in the class were "not invited" on the tour, according to Eric Bauchman, Rachel’s father.

There are two other Jewish students in the choir class, Cheryl Bauchman said, adding that they did not want to get involved in the fight because they were afraid of reprisals.

One of those students, the class’s salutatorian, walked out of the graduation with Rachel and Cheryl Bauchman after the song was finished.

The battle has "been hard on Rachel," Cheryl Bauchman said. "But she does have support from her friends."

Despite the graduation debacle, Rachel Bauchman said she would continue to fight against religious lyrics in the class.

"I want to make it so that every kid has an equal opportunity perform in a public school choir," Rachel Bauchman said.

"I just don’t want any other child to go through what I’ve gone through," she said.

Her mother said the family is consulting with their lawyers about further action.

The National Committee for Public Schools and Religious Liberty, which assisted the Bauchmans in their legal battle, has condemned the incident.

"It’s really disconcerting when people take the law into their own hands like this," said the group’s executive director, Lisa Thurau.

The organization includes some Jewish groups.

"I don’t think you can get a clearer example than this of people trying to impose" religion on someone, she said, adding that some in the school felt "hostile" toward the legal battle against the school.

Observers said the case provides evidence of the popularity of school prayer in some parts of the country.

"One thing you can learn from this is how popular school prayer is," said Marc Stern, co-direction of legal affairs at the American Jewish Congress.

He added that he did not think that the incident would change the problems "we confront on church-state separation."

"The principles are not new or novel," Stern said.