Academy District 20 has updated its guidelines for high school seniors painting their personal parking space after a Rampart High School student threatened legal action against the district for denying her design.

As part of the school’s “paint your senior parking spot” activity, senior Sophia Shumaker submitted a design in August that included her name, the Bible scripture “1 Corinthians 13:4” and an illustration of a flock of sheep and a shepherd guiding a straying sheep on a hill.

“That’s the one Bible verse I can relate back to and it’s just my favorite,” she said.  

When a Rampart teacher denied the design, citing the school’s guidelines prohibiting religious messages, Shumaker opted for an alternative design. She told The Gazette that she later came across a news report in New York about a similar incident and connected with First Liberty Institute, the law firm involved in the case, through her grandfather.

Attorney Keisha T. Russell, on behalf of Shumaker, submitted a letter Oct. 22 to Rampart Principal Meghan Sanders and D-20 Superintendent Jinger Haberer demanding that they allow her to paint her original design by Oct. 31.

“We’re hoping that we can resolve this amicably, but we are open to filing a lawsuit if that doesn’t happen,” Russell told The Gazette after submitting the letter.

The letter called the school district’s policies “inconsistent” since there are examples of religious messaging at its other schools and called the parking spot designs “private speech, not government speech.” The letter concluded that prohibiting Shumaker’s design violated the First Amendment.  

A statement from D-20 provided to local news media noted that it was never contacted by Shumaker or her family about this concern and didn’t receive the letter until Oct. 22.

D-20 sent an email to its high school families and staff announcing an update to how senior parking space artwork is handled across its high schools. Schools will now allow artwork based on students’ views on topics like religion, as long as the designs aren’t disruptive and follow the rules below:

• No offensive language, pictures or symbols
• No negative or rude language (Be nice)
• No “gang-style tagging”
• No double meanings
• No alcohol, tobacco, drug or weapon symbols/words/paraphernalia
• No mention of other schools
• No images that are trademarked or subject to copyright
• You may not use the names of any other students, though you may use your name. If you use a nickname, it must be approved.

Other school districts with high school senior parking spot painting activities include Colorado Springs D-11.

D-20’s message also noted that Rampart did follow the guidelines that were agreed upon across all district high schools and that this was “applied by other schools in different ways with no intent for harm to students.”

Students who wish to update their parking spot painting or paint their spot now can schedule a time to do so.

“Our goal is simple: support student expression while keeping our campuses positive, safe, and welcoming for everyone,” the message read.