CV NEWS FEED // After parents threatened legal action, a California high school removed a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine from its curriculum.
Dos Pueblos High School in the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) had used Andres Serrano’s 1987 photograph “Immersion (Piss Christ)” in a class. Students and parents were outraged.
The image was used in a Theory of Knowledge class, a course which the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program requires in order to discuss the question, “What is art?”
Backed by the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts, the picture of a crucifix in a jar of Serrano’s urine provoked widespread fury upon its release in 1987.
On May 9, lawyers for the Thomas More Society sent a letter to the district calling for the removal of the image from the curriculum. The attorneys argued that the use of the image illegally imposed a hostile atmosphere towards Christian students.
“It is an act of unconstitutional anti-Catholic, anti-Christian bigotry,” special counsel Paul Jonna of the Thomas More Society told Fox News.
On May 23, frustrated parents confronted the principal at a SBUSD board meeting.
“Might I ask, would this teacher at Dos Pueblos High School do this to a Muslim imam or Muhammed? Or to a Jewish rabbi? Maybe we should ask her. But I don’t think so,” said one mother during the meeting.
“This is complete defilement and mockery of Christianity. This is a violation of the Education code that protects our children’s religious beliefs from discrimination and attack.”
Her comment was met with applause from the audience.
Ultimately, the district responded by taking the image out of the curriculum, though they denied the allegations of illegality.
“The District recognizes that use of the image invokes hurtful responses among many in the community,” SBUSD said in a letter. “Because the course curriculum can adequately be covered by discussion and through utilization of other slides, the image will not be included in the future.”
In a statement to Fox News, Dos Pueblos High School student John Hayward called the school’s decision “a small, yet significant, victory for our Lord.”
“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 toward the Catholic faith is widespread,” said Hayward.
Prior to contacting the Thomas More Society, “it was a merely symbolic movement,” Hayward explained. “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.’”
