A California high school has backed down after parents and students demanded the removal of a controversial photograph, which they called “anti-Christian bigotry,” from one of its courses.
Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, California, included a photograph taken by Andres Serrano in 1987 in a Theory of Knowledge course that’s required for its International Baccalaureate Diploma program. The prestigious program, aimed at upper-level high school students who want to pursue higher education, is recognized by many universities.
The photo shows a plastic crucifix submerged in a small glass tank of what was purported to be the artist’s urine. The image, which has been displayed in art galleries, caused widespread public outrage when it became known that it was created using funds from a grant provided by the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The controversy ultimately resulted in Congress limiting NEA funding in 1989.
Serrano defended his work in a 2017 interview with The Washington Post.
“I was born and raised a Catholic and have been a Christian all my life,” he said. “My work is not meant to be blasphemous nor offensive.
“It was very surreal to see myself become the object of a controversy and national debate I did not intend.”
Paul Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm that litigates religious freedom cases and challenges government overreach, said that John Hayward, who will be a senior at the high school in the fall, learned that the course featuring the photo was a prerequisite to obtain an International Baccalaureate Diploma.
“He had no option but to drop out of the program. And then we were retained,” the lawyer told The Epoch Times.
The school’s use of the Serrano photo in a course required for an International Baccalaureate Diploma “shows extremely poor judgment,” said Jonna, who is also a partner at LiMandri and Jonna in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
‘Debasing Religion’
The law firm sent a letter threatening legal action to Wendy Sims-Moten, the president of the board for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, in which the high school is located, on May 9. The letter denounced the photo as a “particularly vile, anti-Catholic image” that constitutes “hate-speech which is intended to, and which actually does, cause devout Catholics to feel directly harassed and targeted.”The letter noted that a commonly asked question about the photo, which the theory of knowledge course presumably asks, “is whether the artist is debasing religion or commenting on the way it has been debased.”
“Either way, the image is hate-speech: either it is debasing Christianity itself or the religion practiced by adherents of the Catholic Church. The image is meant to provoke a reaction, it is meant to be harassing. In that sense, it may be ‘art,’ but teaching it is no different than asking students to personally step on a crucifix so that the class can then have a discussion about how engaging in blasphemy made them feel,” the letter reads.
Jonna said the letter explained the various ways in which the school was violating the Constitution.
“Both the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause prohibit government hostility to religion,” he said.
“Teaching this image is tantamount to harassment.”
School District Responds
The school district acknowledged to The Epoch Times in an email on June 12 that it won’t be using the Serrano photograph.“The District recognizes that the use of the image invokes hurtful responses among many in the community. Because the course curriculum can adequately be covered by discussion and through the utilization of other slides, the image will not be included in the future.
“While the image will not be used in the Theory of Knowledge curriculum going forward, it still may be discussed verbally in the context of discussing the confluence of art and censorship, an important issue in addressing the topic of ‘what is art.’
“The image was used on a slide to discuss the topic of ‘what is art’ that took place in a college-level IB Theory of Knowledge class. When a student, who was not enrolled in the class but heard the piece was discussed, objected, the school administrators met with the student and family to discuss their concerns.”
Hayward said in a statement: “Having this sacrilege taken down from a school setting means a lot to all those who helped call for its removal in a time when hate towards the Catholic faith is widespread.
“This was a small, yet significant, victory for Our Lord. Prior to contacting the Thomas More Society, it was a merely symbolic movement. Until we had the weight of a legal letter, our concerns would have been, and indeed were, brushed off by administrators who proudly defended their blasphemous curriculum as some sort of ‘human right.’”
Jonna said his side was “pleased that the school district backed down.”
“They should’ve never used this despicable image in any manner,“ he said. ”This was anti-Catholic, anti-Christian bigotry—which unfortunately is tolerated all too often. Students deserve to learn in an environment that’s free from religious discrimination—and we’re pleased that litigation was not necessary to accomplish that here.”
