Evangelizing Through School Email?

A Florida school administrator is crying foul after receiving a string of religiously and politically oriented emails sent to him by his immediate superior through official channels.

Patrick Capriola, the assistant principal of the Bannerman Learning Center, a public alternative school in Green Cove Springs, Fla., has filed suit against the Clay County School District and Bannerman’s principal, Linda Turner, claiming his constitutional rights were violated when Turner sent him and other school employees emails containing religious and political messages. In his lawsuit, which was filed in the US District Court in the Middle District of Florida on Nov. 18, Capriola claims Turner violated the Establishment Clause by using her official school email account to send a majority of the emails in question, which he argues were designed to “impose her religious views” on the school’s staff.

The emails mentioned in the lawsuit cover a variety of topics, ranging from an encouragement for all school staff to “to pray for rain in the name of Jesus for the State of Texas” to “an explicitly religious and proselytizing sermon-like viewpoint” on 9/11. Other emails are more political in nature and make fun of President Obama.

In filing his lawsuit, Carpriola seeks monetary damages for emotional pain and suffering. He has also requested that an injunction be granted that would bar Turner from sending any more emails to school employees containing “prayer and other religious proselytizing,” which would end what he calls Turner’s “endorsement and promotion of specific political [and religious] doctrine.”

Capriola’s lawsuit has two main claims: 1.) That his constitutional rights were violated when Turner sent him religiously and politically oriented emails; and 2.) That Turner violated the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution when she sent said emails using her official school email account.

The problem with Capriola’s first claim is that he has failed to highlight which of his constitutional rights were violated when Turner sent him the emails in question. Last time I checked, the Constitution did not include protections against being offended or annoyed by the actions of others. Unless he can highlight specific instances of Turner violating his rights, Capriola is unlikely to receive anything other than nominal damages (typically $1).

Capriola’s second claim, however, is much more interesting. Did Turner violate the Establishment Clause by sending religiously oriented emails to her subordinates using her official school email account? To answer this question, two other questions must be answered first: 1.) Are there any regulations or policies in the Clay County School District that dictate how official school email accounts can and cannot be used?; and 2.) In what capacity (official or unofficial) did Turner send the emails?

Analyzing the current policies (or lack thereof) regarding the use of government property and resources in Clay County will have a major impact on the outcome of this case. If there is a policy, either in written form or adopted as tradition by the school district, that prohibits the use of official email accounts for unofficial purposes, then Turner would clearly be in the wrong. However, even if such a policy exists, it would not necessarily prove that she violated the Establishment Clause, only that she violated local policy. In the end, it would all depend on what the “reasonable observer” would think. The courts tend to err on the side of a conservative definition of the reasonable observer, which means that if there is a regulatory policy regarding official email use, the court would most likely rule that the reasonable observer would view the content of the emails as “official,” and thus in violation of the Establishment Clause. However, if there is no such regulatory policy, the answer would be much more ambiguous.

The other, more important, element to analyze is in what context did Turner send the email, i.e. as the principal or as a private citizen. Had Turner sent the emails in her official capacity as the principal of the school, there would be an establishment issue because the requests for prayer would have been akin to an order given by Turner to her subordinates. However, it is evident by the content of the emails that requests for prayer were exactly that: requests. Everything Turner sent was sent in an unofficial capacity (i.e. she sent the emails as private citizen Turner, not Principal Turner). The fact that she used official channels for her unofficial communications only displays her foolishness, but does not constitute an establishment of religion.

Based on the evidence, I argue that Turner is guilty of nothing more than unwisely using her official email account. There is no evidence of any regulatory policies regarding how school employees can use their email accounts, nor is there any indication that Turner intended to coerce anyone into preforming any religious act using her position as their superior. The fact that the emails mentioned in the lawsuit came from a combination of both Turner’s official and personal email accounts is further proof that she intended them to be viewed in an unofficial capacity. It appears that she sent the emails to her subordinates using the email account linked to where she was located when she sent them (i.e. she used the official account when at school and the personal account when at home). In the future, any emails of this nature should be sent using only Turner’s personal account (although it would be wise for her to stop sending them altogether).