ACLJ Victory in Student Speech Case
As I mentioned previously, we have been working on a case from
A church youth group had been working on a teen drama production and many of the participants are leaders and members of their Bible clubs at two local high schools. The Bible clubs wanted to support the production by putting up posters around their schools. At one school, the principal denied the students request without explanation. At the other school, the Bible club advisor approved the request, but after the students put up the posters, the principal removed them because the production was being run by a church. No further explanation or school policy regarding the posting of student club advertisements was provided.
We sent legal letters to both schools on behalf of members of the Bible clubs, explaining that the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act require schools to treat Bible clubs the same as non-religious student clubs with regard to advertisements, meeting space, and other benefits. At one school, the Bible club was allowed to post advertisements for the teen drama production soon after we sent our letter. At the other school, we learned that there was a neutral, even-handed practice of limiting all student group advertisements to meetings held on campus and events that are organized and run solely by the student group (such as a fundraising car wash). However, we secured the schools approval for students to be able to distribute fliers about the teen drama production (and other off-campus events in the future) one-on-one to other students before and after classes and during other non-instructional time.
The students from the Bible clubs were happy with this outcome, and the youth pastor thanked us for our assistance and said that the first day of the production was very successful.