A Colorado teenager is speaking out after winning a religious freedom battle with her school district.
Sophia Shoemaker, a senior at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, told CBN News that she was not allowed to paint Christian paintings in the school parking lot.
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“My original design was a shepherd and his 99 sheep, and the shepherd goes looking for the missing 99 sheep, with a Bible verse from 1 Corinthians 13:4,” Shoemaker said. “Then, when I presented it to the student council representative, I was told that it was not acceptable just because it had religious imagery.”
She then asked to design a shortened version of the Bible verse, but was again told that would likely not be allowed.
“So we ended up completely redoing the parking lot,” Shoemaker said, noting that the new design included secret religious imagery. “I had a school of fish, and one fish was swimming backwards, so I don’t think they could catch it.”
Keisha Russell, an attorney for First Liberty Institute, told CBN News that she deals with these issues on a daily basis and defended Shoemaker’s “private student language.”
“I actually love helping students,” Russell said, noting that First Liberty has written a request to the school district to try to improve the situation. “And I love how they try to stand up for themselves.”
Shoemaker said seeing another student triumph in a similar situation inspired her to take action and reach First Liberty.
“My mom found First Liberty and we took off from there,” she said, noting the support she experienced from the community as she resisted what she called a design ban. “A lot of people I’ve never talked to have come up to me and said, ‘I saw you on the news. What you’re doing is great. Keep fighting for it. . . . And I’m so grateful to everyone who has prayed for me and supported me.”
Shoemaker said she was relieved to hear of the victory and felt there was no need to take the matter beyond the demand letter.
“I think we can repaint the parking lot to the original design,” she said.
Russell went on to explain that the district is allowing the design to be resubmitted and that he expects it will be “approved.”
“More importantly for Sophia, we changed our guidelines to allow students to express their religious beliefs in their parking spaces, which is pretty amazing,” Russell said. “Sophia is the cause of that, and that’s amazing. We’re definitely grateful to the school district for responding to us on a reasonable schedule and reviewing the law and taking it seriously.”
Russell encouraged other students like Shoemaker to similarly “stand up” for their rights. And Shoemaker had a similar message for other children facing similar challenges.
“I would probably say this: Even if you’re scared or think people are going to judge you, just know… people are there to support you, and people will be there for you,” she said. “People are going through the same things you are, and you have a much stronger community than you realize.”
Shoemaker concluded, “If you think something is wrong, especially if it involves your religion, you should defend it.”
As for District 20, officials confirmed a change in policy to allow religious images as long as they do not contain offensive language, images or other problematic elements.
“To keep things clear and fair for all students, we are recalibrating practice arrangements across the district,” the statement reads. “For the remainder of the school year, schools will allow artwork based on student perspectives on themes such as religion, as long as the design follows the rules below and does not interfere with classwork.”
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