First Liberty Institute is representing teacher Marisol Arroyo-Castro, whose religious liberty fight against New Britain dates back to December of last year. That is when a school vice principal told her she must remove the crucifix or be disciplined for insubordination. The school’s bosses suggested what they considered a compromise – hiding the cross under her desk, out of view – but the teacher, a devout Catholic, refused to do. For doing that she was suspended then placed on administrative leave.
Arroyo-Castro, now moved to an administrative job, was a seventh-grade teacher at DiLoreto Elementary & Middle School before she was removed from her classroom for allegedly violating the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause.
First Liberty filed its lawsuit on behalf of the teacher Feb. 6 in the U.S. District Court for Connecticut. It is seeking a preliminary injunction against New Britain to get the teacher returned to her classroom.
The religious liberty attorneys at First Liberty contend Arroyo-Castro should not be forced to hide a religious symbol but New Britain claims displaying the cross violates the Establishment Clause and has not backed down.
“We wrote them a demand letter. We had conversations with them," Keisha Russell, a First Liberty senior counsel attorney, tells AFN. "Ultimately, they thought they were right."
An email to Arroyo-Castro from Andrew Mazzei, the middle school vice principal, says the teacher was informed “any permanent displays of religious symbols are prohibited from public schools, based on the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
According to First Liberty’s account of the dispute, school principal Dario Soto compared the cross to an idol and later told her to “give Caesar what is Caesar’s.”
First Liberty also alleges the school’s chief of staff suggested the seventh-grade teacher put the cross in her desk drawer and says a union representative suggested she put the cross under her desk where students wouldn’t see it.
Under pressure to do so, Arroyo-Castro did hide the cross under her desk for several days. Feeling guilt-ridden for doing so, like she was hiding her faith, she moved it back to the nearby wall. She was then suspended by the principal for doing so.
After AFN asked New Britain if it agrees with First Liberty’s account of the teacher’s dispute with the school principal, vice principal, and chief of staff, a spokesman addressed several of those allegations:
- The email was sent by Mazzei, the assistant principal, after a "non-disciplinary meeting" with Arroyo-Castro and a union representative.
- Regarding the school principal's alleged comments, New Britain "will not speculate on a conversation that District Leadership was not involved in," the spokesman said.
- The school's chief of staff suggested she store the cross when it was not being used in prayer. New Britain says the teacher and her union representative proposed putting it under he desk.
Kennedy ruling created new test
Russell tells AFN New Britain has a "false perception” about the separation of church and state. That phrase, not found in the U.S. Constitution, is often cited when religious conduct is unwelcomed in the classrooms and hallways of a public school.
"A lot of people believe that religion doesn't belong in school,” Russell says. “And they believe it doesn't belong coming from a teacher or any sort of public school administrator.”
The attorneys at First Liberty can dispute that claim with their own landmark case, Kennedy v Bremerton, the 6-3 ruling in 2022. That ruling sided with Joe Kennedy, the Washington state assistant football coach, who was punished by the district superintendent for praying after home games on the 50-yard line.
“Bremerton school district believed that it was inappropriate for their students to see a teacher praying, which is just crazy,” Russell says, “but that is what, for some reason, public schools believe."
Writing for the majority, Justice Neal Gorsuch addressed the Establishment Clause by tossing the so-called “Lemon test” courts had used since the 1970s to weigh government-endorsed religion, according to a case summary by the Scotusblog website. Gorsuch said courts should go back to the U.S. Constitution itself, which promotes individual religious expression and “neither mandates nor tolerates” the discrimination Coach Kennedy endured.
Teacher faces other allegations
In the emailed statement to AFN, the New Britain spokesman said the school district has made its legal decisions "in accordance with the law" and after legal counsel from law firm Shipman and Goodwin.
Regarding the Kennedy case, New Britain is aware of that ruling but its legal counsel has advised it the situation with Arroyo-Castro and her cross is "fundamentally different in both facts and context."
The school district's statement also went on to state other "classroom conduct" has been raised about Arroyo-Castro, including reports she has made religious statements to her students such as they are "sinners" and they "need Jesus."
"If substantiated," the school district's statement reads, "these allegations, combined with the display of the crucifix, present a more complex issue than has been publicly portrayed. The district’s investigation is ongoing."
The website for the law firm, Shipman and Goodwin LLP, includes legal reaction and opinion after the Kennedy v. Bremerton ruling. Justice's Gorsuch's rejection of the "Lemon test" is mentioned as well as the Court's conclusion that the coach was acting as a "private citizen" and not in a governmental capacity.
"School officials must now be vigilant," the law firm concluded, "in differentiating between private religious speech by school employees, which in the Court’s view is 'double-protected' by the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses, and proselytization by school officials, which would still be a constitutional violation."
New Britain's new allegations against the punished teacher fit the second portion of that legal summary.
New Britain disputes punishment claim
According to First Liberty, Arroyo-Castro was moved from the classroom to a non-teaching position as a form of punishment.
In a statement to AFN, the school district said the move is “standard operating procedure” during an employee investigation and not an “act of retaliation” as First Liberty alleges. It is also a “temporary personnel decision” that was made in the best interest of New Britain School District.
“Any suggestion that the district has acted improperly or unfairly is simply untrue,” the statement reads in part.
Insisting the teacher was punished, however, First Liberty has also filed a Title VII complaint with the EEOC.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with additional comments from New Britain Consolidated School District.
