Norfolk teacher resigns after anointing students with holy oil

NORFOLK

A Jacox Elementary teacher who anointed students with "holy oil" in the classroom has resigned.

School officials say she may have performed inappropriate religious practices during her three years with the division.

They would not name the teacher. But they confirmed that Lashawn Hampton-Broussard is the only one of five fifth-grade teachers listed on the Jacox website who no longer works for the division. She resigned last month, school leaders said.

The fifth-grade teacher is the second educator this year to be investigated for inappropriate religious activities.

Earlier this year, the division conducted an investigation at Oakwood Elementary after teachers told the state that their principal had led staff and students in prayer prior to Standards of Learning testing. Teachers also said they felt pressured by the principal, Sheila Tillett Holas, to attend prayer or Bible sessions before school.

At Jacox, a parent complained in early June about the teacher's religious actions, according to a memo sent to the School Board on Wednesday. The memo was obtained by The Virginian-Pilot in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed July 1.

Interim Superintendent Michael Spencer told the board in the memo that he had interviewed the teacher. She had admitted that "she had rubbed 'holy oil' on students and their desks during the school day," he wrote.

The teacher was removed from the classroom and she resigned, the memo said.

Karen Tanner, a division spokeswoman, said the teacher's activities breached the school system's instructional curriculum "and violates policies and laws related to the separation of church and state."

Teachers receive training in appropriate classroom behaviors and classroom management techniques, Tanner said.

However, with the Jacox incident echoing earlier concerns at Oakwood, Spencer told the board he will remind principals at a meeting next week about policies and expectations regarding religious expression in schools.

The Rev. Kirk Houston Sr., who was elected board chairman Wednesday, said the teacher's actions were inappropriate but still overall rare in the division.

Houston is also the founder and senior pastor of Gethsemane Community Fellowship Baptist Church in Norfolk.

"I am very clear as a faith professional on where it is appropriate and legal to promote my faith," he said. The teacher's action "is not behavior that's acceptable, that we condone, at the school."

Karen Jones Squires, the board's newly elected vice chairwoman, called the classroom religious activities anomalies that were well-intentioned but inappropriate.

"I emphatically do not believe that there is a widespread effort to impose religious viewpoints or practices on Norfolk public school children," she wrote in an e-mail Thursday. "I feel very strongly myself that religious instruction of children is a family matter in which public schools should not interfere."

Jacox Principal Kimberly Gray did not return phone messages to her school Thursday. A local phone number for Hampton-Broussard could not be found.

The state's official guidelines for religious activity allow teachers to meet with other teachers for private religious speech, including prayer, before and after class, as well as during lunch breaks and free time.

However, the guidelines bar teachers from leading students in devotional activities during classes or school-sponsored activities. Teachers also cannot encourage students to participate with them in religious activity before or after school.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com