Court Ruling Prompts Ban on Groups Sending Fliers Home With Students

[fgoodwin 23]

Court Ruling Prompts Ban on Groups Sending Fliers Home With Students

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/16/AR2006081601613.html

http://tinyurl.com/lymmy

 

By Lori Aratani

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 17, 2006; Page B02

 

Montgomery County school officials announced yesterday that they are temporarily banning outside groups such as parent-teacher associations and the Boy Scouts from distributing fliers about activities and events in student backpacks.

 

The decision comes less than a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the school system's policy for flier distribution was unconstitutional because it gave educators unlimited power to approve or reject materials.

 

The case is the outgrowth of a dispute between the school system and Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maryland. The group filed suit in 2001 after the school system denied its request to distribute fliers about its Good News Club programs, in which students learn about the Bible. System officials said they were concerned because the materials were religious.

 

System officials said the court's decision left them with only two options until a new policy could be developed: allow all fliers to be distributed or allow none.

 

Educators said allowing all fliers to be distributed was not practical.

 

"Temporarily suspending the distribution of fliers is the only real option the court left us because opening the floodgates on backpack distribution would overwhelm our staff and turn them into professional backpack stuffers instead of professional educators,'' said Larry A. Bowers, chief operating officer for the school system.

 

Now only materials from the school system and other government agencies are allowed to be sent home. PTAs and community groups such as the Boy Scouts may display their fliers on tables in school buildings but may not send them home with students.

 

"It's going to have a devastating effect on communication for PTAs to parents,'' said Jane deWinter, president of the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations. "We're very, very concerned about this. "

 

The Board of Education is expected to rework the policy in the fall.

[evmori 11]

Not that big of a deal! It the sign up info is available at a separate table then it can still get home.

 

Gotta love this kinda stuff! What about this is unconstitutional & how did this debacle get started?

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[DanKroh 11]

My sons' school has had the policy of no non-school related flyers in the backpacks for as long as they've been in school. Personally, I think it's a good policy, as it should not be the job of the teachers to stuff flyers for non-school related information.

 

However, our PTA group isn't labeled an "outside group", since it is school related.

 

Ed, the way they were doing it was unconstitutional because it was not giving equal access to all groups who wanted to distribute flyers.

[evmori 11]

So a group submits a flier to be sent home & the powers that be say no. How is that unconstitutional?

[DanKroh 11]

Because they are violating equal access, which is the law for public schools.

[scoutingagain 20]

Ed,

 

Has Merlyn stolen your password?

 

SA

[Merlyn_LeRoy 72]

I certainly know about equal access laws, and I also agree with them. If school officials were able to arbitrarily veto groups they don't agree with, atheist groups would typically be refused while many theist groups (like the BSA) would be OK'd.

[scoutingagain 20]

Well then Merlyn I appologize.

 

I just found it ironic that Ed seemed to be arguing in favor of allowing those godless, liberal, secular school administrators, to have the right to arbitrarily deny a Christian group access to the distribution of school fliers.

 

SA

[SR540Beaver 116]

My son started 8th grade this week. He started as a Webelos 1 in 4th grade. His elementary school used to allow fliers to be sent home with the kids up until the time he started scouting. I know because we used to get a boat load of fliers all the time and because we wanted to do some Cub fliers at the beginning of 5th grade. The policy changed so that you had to go thru the school district administration building far in advance and get approval. It became too much of a hassle for most people. I believe the real reason it was done in our district was because people were getting tired of getting "junk mail" in the kids bags and the teachers needed to concentrate on teaching instead of distributing fliers into multiple backpacks on a daily basis.

 

I will say that the schools are very open to allowing organizations in to recruit during open house the day before school opens. Our Pack always had a table at 3 different schools.

[SR540Beaver 116]

Gee.....I don't know! I certainly wouldn't have a problem with a school denying NAMBLA in the school while allowing the local little league association in. Some organizations make sense and some don't when it comes to kids.

[GernBlansten 10]

Who gets to decide? Some godless, liberal, secular school administrator?

 

Its all or nothing. I prefer nothing.

[Merlyn_LeRoy 72]

I just found it ironic that Ed seemed to be arguing in favor of allowing those godless, liberal, secular school administrators, to have the right to arbitrarily deny a Christian group access to the distribution of school fliers.

 

There's a similar irony about the law itself; it was co-sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah to make sure that Christian students could form religious student groups, but when students began to demand the right to form gay-straight alliances, he's suddenly against his own law:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_psgr2.htm

When asked about the selective bias against the gay club and in favor of Bible study groups, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said that when the Equal Access Act was approved, it wasn't for "those sorts of groups."

[Beavah 205]

My sons' school has had the policy of no non-school related flyers in the backpacks for as long as they've been in school. Personally, I think it's a good policy, as it should not be the job of the teachers to stuff flyers for non-school related information.

 

However, our PTA group isn't labeled an "outside group", since it is school related.

 

Yah, sorry, that's not legal there, DanKroh. PTA's are separately incorporated and not under da direction of the elected school board, eh?

 

If your district allows the PTA fliers, but doesn't allow Scoutin' flyers, they're acting illegally. Anybody who wants to can bring a complaint and win. And an honorable school system would act in accord with the law, eh?

 

 

[Eamonn 61]

Most of the stuff OJ had in his book bag seemed to end up in a big black hole along with his math homework.

Eamonn.

[evmori 11]

Because they are violating equal access, which is the law for public schools.

 

So it's OK if NAMBALA sends home fliers to school aged children?