School Settles Student's Suit Over Christian Lit. Handouts
by Jim Brown
February 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A middle school in Broward County, Florida, has agreed to no longer bar a student from passing out invitations to an after-school church event to her fellow classmates. The Broward County School District has reached a settlement with Christine Curran and her father, who sued the district over its literature distribution policy. The school system has agreed to replace that policy, which contained no guidelines for granting or denying a request to distribute literature.
While a student at Driftwood Middle School in Hollywood, Florida, Christine Curran was prohibited from handing out invitations to hear a Christian youth speaker at her church. Chief Counsel Erik Stanley of Liberty Counsel, who represented the Currans, says the case was yet another example of religious discrimination in a public school.
Stanley points out that the school official that prevented the child from handing out her invitations was actually violating her First Amendment rights. "When this administrator saw Christine Curran passing out the literature, she called Christine over to her, took the literature from her, took a look at it, and then told her she could not pass out the literature at all." Also, the lawyer notes that this particular principal admitted in a deposition that she did not allow any Bibles to be distributed in the school.
But in the case of the barred invitations, Stanley contends that the school policy regarding literature distribution was itself unconstitutional. It required all students to submit literature to a school administrator for approval before giving it out to fellow students. However, the policy contained no standards governing the discretion of school administrators in determining whether to allow or prohibit literature. Nor did it contain any time limits for granting or denying a request to distribute literature.
Hence, under the old guidelines, a school official could effectively deny a student's constitutionally protected right to free speech, simply by not acting on the request. However, now that a settlement has been reached in the suit, the Liberty Counsel attorney believes the district has come into compliance with the federal Constitution.
"The new policy takes care of those problems," Stanley says. "It put strict standards in for when a request to distribute literature can be denied, and it also put strict time limits in for when the principal has to get back to the student with a decision whether or not to allow the literature."
According to the terms of the settlement, Broward County School District officials agreed to dump the former policy in favor of the new, more specific and constitutionally correct policy. In addition, the District agreed it would no longer bar students from distributing Christian-themed literature simply on the basis of its religious content and would pay all attorneys fees and costs incurred in the lawsuit.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
