A Colorado teenager is speaking out after winning a religious liberty battle against her school district.
Sophia Shumaker, a senior at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs told CBN News she wasn’t allowed to have Christian imagery painted on her school parking spot.
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“My original design was a shepherd and 99 sheep, and the shepherd is leaving the 99 sheep to go find the lost one, and with a Bible verse of 1 Corinthians 13:4,” Shumaker said. “And when I presented that to a representative of student council, she said it wouldn’t get accepted just because it has that religious imagery.”
She then wanted to do an abbreviated Bible verse version of the design, but was told again it likely wouldn’t be permissible.
“So I ended up just completely redoing my parking spot,” Shumaker said, noting she put a covert religious image in the new design. “I had a group of fish and then one fish was, you know, swimming backwards and I don’t think they caught on to that one.”
Keisha Russell, an attorney with First Liberty Institute, told CBN News she routinely deals with these issues and defended Shumaker’s “private student expression.”
“I actually really love helping students,” Russell said, noting First Liberty wrote a demand letter to the school district to try and remedy the situation. “And I love it when they want to stand up for themselves.”
Shumaker said she was inspired to take action and reach First Liberty after seeing another student score a victory in a similar circumstance.
“My mom found First Liberty and then we just went from there,” she said, noting she has experienced support from her community as she has pushed back against the purported design ban. “I had a lot of people who I haven’t even talked to come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I saw you on the news. What you’re doing is amazing. Keep fighting for it. … And I’m really thankful for everybody that was praying for me and cheering me on.”
Shumaker said she felt relieved when she heard about the victory and the need not to take the matter any further than the demand letter.
“I think I get to repaint my parking spot to my original design,” she said.
Russell further explained the district will allow the design to be resubmitted and they expect it “will be approved.”
“Even more so, which was really important to Sophia, was that they’re changing their guidelines so that, on the parking spaces, students will be allowed to express their religious beliefs, which is so amazing,” Russell said. “Sophia is the cause of that, and that’s amazing, and we we’re definitely grateful to the district for getting back to us in a reasonable timeline and, you know, reviewing the law and really taking it seriously.”
Russell encouraged other students like Shumaker to “stand up” in a similar way to protect their rights. And Shumaker shared a similar message to other kids like her facing tough situations.
“I would probably say that, even if you’re scared or think people are going to judge you, just know that … people are there to support you and people are going to be there for you,” she said. “People are going through the same thing as you and you have a way stronger community than you know.”
Shumaker concluded, “And if you think something’s wrong, then you should stand up for it, especially if it’s with your religion.”
As for District 20, officials confirmed that they will be changing policies to allow religious drawings, provided they don’t contain offensive language or images, or other problematic elements.
“To keep things clear and fair for all students, we’re re-aligning our practice district-wide,” a statement read. “For the remainder of the school year, schools will allow artwork based on a student’s viewpoint around topics such as religion, as long as the design follows the rules below and doesn’t disrupt the school day.”
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