Recently, France's Education Minister, Luc Ferry, suggested that facial hair and bandannas (when worn for religious reasons) be forbidden in public school classrooms, as well as Islamic head scarves, Jewish yarmulkes, Christian crosses, etc.
This is, in my staunch separationist view, utterly nuts. I entirely support a total separation of church and state. But I'm not in favor of stifling an individual's rights.
Church/State separation revolves primarily around the idea of the State endorsing religion. For example, when a school decides to display the Ten Commandments. That's endorsement of religion. Even if the displays are donated and not paid for with taxpayer money, the display of them by the school is a perceived endorsement.
But students wearing religious symbols around their necks, or head coverings or facial hairs according to their religious beliefs… this is not any sort of endorsement by the school and cannot rationally be interpreted as such.
There's a line between endorsement and permission. While it would be perfectly fine for a school to allow a student to wear a WWJD T-shirt, allowing the same student to lead a classroom in prayer is over that line. The line is not hard to see, even in France. Evidently, M. Ferry needs glasses.
