Jersey City Public School Students

The Becket Fund Protects The Rights of Children to Attend Parochial Schools.  After a threatened lawsuit by the Becket Fund, the Jersey City Public School Superintendent backed down from its anti-private school position which intimidated potential defectors from leaving the public system. Interim Superintendent Frank Sinatra told schoolchildren that "any public school student absent on Friday, November 8 for Catholic School testing will not be granted an excused absence." A student that wished to exercise his or her right to an independent education would therefore have been subjected to the same disciplinary measures that would be given to any other unexplained absence. Upon learning of the situation, The Becket Fund immediately responded by contacting Sinatra to make clear that such action violated the constitutional rights of students and their parents to a free education. "I guess they've given up on trying to improve the public schools and have resorted to just locking kids in them," remarked Kevin Hasson.