Education Matters:

About 20 years ago a delegation from the church of Scientology came to my school and asked that I be fired from my position as a teacher (some might take note here of a recurring theme in my professional life). They had objected to a conversation I had with my students about a constitutional issue, and secondarily, about truth in advertising. Time magazine had just done a feature article about the organization, and it managed to make its way into a classroom discussion of the 1st Amendment.

If, I posed the question, Scientology is a religion — as it has been defined by our courts — then it should be held to the same restrictions, including separation from the state. Then I displayed a pamphlet that had been placed in every teacher’s mailbox that day entitled, “The Way To Happiness,” which was the name of the organization that sent it.

This same literature came to teachers throughout the district every year. The messages were benign, if not unusually blunt — “Don’t kill, Don’t commit mayhem, etc.” — but they were straightforward and clearly stated. What was not clearly identified was the sponsoring organization. On the bottom of the last page of the pamphlet in very small print was the name “L. Ron Hubbard,” who is the founder of Scientology.

Whether the “Way to Happiness” was in fact a way to gather converts to Scientology through the public schools I cannot say. But it did strike me as dishonest for any organization to sponsor a program, especially one aimed specifically at our youth, without properly identifying itself. It also brought into question the separation issue embedded in the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, which clearly prohibits any church from proselytizing through a public agency.

I said as much to my students, and sitting in the class was a young Scientologist who relayed my sentiments to her mother, who in turn passed them along to her church officials. Their visit to the principal, at the time Don Duncan, was a short one, as he saw nothing improper in my remarks and told them to take it up with district officials if they wished to pursue it further. Nothing more came of it.