Schools review religion policies
Thou shalt not restrict free speech.
A Harrisburg-based law group focusing on religious issues is threatening to sue dozens of school districts — including two in Butler County — if they do not remove a policy perceived to limit students' ability to express their religious beliefs at school.
Butler Area and Slippery Rock Area school districts were among the 55 districts statewide that were sent letters giving them until Feb. 21 before legal action would be taken by the group. Both districts indicated they were looking to review and change the policy.
Senior counsel Jeremy Samek, from the Independence Law Center, said the problem with the policy in the two county school districts is that it misinterprets the separation of church and state as outlined by the First Amendment. Known as Policy 220 in both schools, the rule was written as a policy template by the Pennsylvania School Board Association.
Samek explained that while the Butler and Slippery Rock policies mean to protect First Amendment rights, they misinterpret the school's need to separate church and state as outlined by the establishment clause in the amendment. In doing so, Samek said, the policies limit students' rights to express their religious beliefs during the school day in noninstructive environments through things like student clubs.
“There's a misunderstanding board members and administrators have that the establishment clause requires some sort of overt hostility to student religious speech,” Samek said. “But it just requires a neutral attitude. Sometimes, they treat student religious speech like asbestos that needs to be removed and quarantined.”
Districts examining policies
As of Tuesday, Samek said neither district had responded to the letters sent out Jan. 22.
Alfonso Angelucci, superintendent of Slippery Rock Area School District, said the district was aware of the issue and is addressing the policy.
“It's an outdated policy that needs to be examined anyway,” Angelucci said. “Those things change through the years. And when that happens, you do have to examine your policies.”
Angelucci said he plans to have discussions on the issue in one of the next two school board meetings.
And Butler Area School District spokeswoman Kara Droney said Policy 220 is being “revised.”
During Monday's school board meeting, Superintendent Brian White said the Pennsylvania School Board Association notified the district that some of its policies don't comply with federal law.
He said Policy 220, like other policies, was written by the PSBA and adopted by the board.
Solicitor Tom King said the board should change the policies. The issue will be on next week's agenda for a first reading.
The law group was emboldened to make the move after winning a legal dispute last year with a school district in Mechanicsburg. According to Samek, the school had an identical policy to the one adopted by both Slippery Rock and Butler. The policy gives administrators the authority to prohibit certain language not protected by free speech, including expressions that seek “to establish the supremacy of a particular religious denomination.”
Discrimination claim
But Samek said the policy is used to discriminate against religious speech instead of treating it “neutrally with secular speech, not treated worse.”
Samek offered the Mechanicsburg case as an example as to how the policy violates the First Amendment.
“The student Bible club wanted to put posters up to notify students of a meeting. They were denied by a review board because there's a Bible verse in it. That's viewpoint discrimination,” Samek said. “So that's identical to the Butler school policies. They think allowing students to do these things is a form of religious promotion, which it's not.”
So far, 20 of the 55 school districts responded to the law group that they will remove the policy.
“We've been very happy with the speed at which many school districts have responded favorably,” Samek said.
