(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Academy School District 20 (D20) will let a Rampart High School Senior have a religious-themed parking space after she threatened legal action over the high school denying her design.

Sophia Shumaker will get to re-paint her parking space to include a shepherd on a hill with a staff, sheep, and a bible verse after the district updated its guidelines to allow students to include religious messages. Schumaker’s lawyers previously said that parking spots at other D20 schools featured religious imagery, despite the old rules banning it, and threatened to sue the district.

“It is unconstitutional for the school to reject Sophia’s parking space design due to its religious imagery,” said Keisha Russell, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute, a law firm that represented Shumaker. “The Constitution protects private, religious speech—even when it occurs on public school property. The school’s policy violates both the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause because it targets Sophia’s speech because of its religious viewpoint.”

A Spokesperson told Fox21, “The school did follow agreed-upon guidelines governing this program across the District. However, the set of rules was applied by
other schools in different ways with no intent for harm to students. To keep things clear and fair
for all students, we’re re-aligning our practice district-wide.”

All parking artwork designs must now follow revised guidelines, including:

No offensive language, pictures, or symbols

No negative or rude language

No “gang-style tagging”

No double meanings

No alcohol, tobacco, drug, or weapon symbols/words/paraphilia

No mention of other schools

No images that are trademarked or subject to copyright

No names of other students

D20 Schools will continue to review designs for these content rules and for practical items like
safety, visibility, numbering, and traffic markings.