Anti-Religious School Policy Struck Down
by Jim Brown
September 5, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A constitutional attorney is praising a federal appeals court for tossing out a Florida school board policy that banned students from passing out "religious or proselytizing" literature.The Lee County School Board in Fort Myers had barred seventh-grader Michelle Heinkel from distributing religious and pro-life literature at Cypress Lake Middle School during the "Day of Remembrance," a day set aside to remember victims of abortion. Last year, a federal district judge ruled the pro-life pamphlets have no place in schools, stating that allowing such distribution could turn the campus into a "battlefield."
But recently the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the lower-court ruling, declaring the board's policy unconstitutional. The policy also gave too much unrestricted discretion to school officials to deny speech, said the court.
Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, which represented Heinkel, says his clients free-speech rights have been vindicated.
"This case certainly involves, I think, the twin sisters -- both religious and political speech -- so to speak, without which we would have no freedom," says the Liberty Counsel chairman. "They are strongly protected in the First Amendment; and while public schools may ban obscenity or libel, they cannot ban religious and political speech."
Neither religious nor political speech stops at the schoolhouse door, says Staver. "[W]hen schools try to ban religious speech, it sends a wrong message that religion is taboo or second class," he notes.
The ruling by the Eleventh Circuit, says the Christian attorney, advances religious freedom for his fellow believers. "Certainly, when we show up, when Christians engage the culture, you can make great headway," he says. But for too long, Christians have not been doing that -- "and we lose by default," adds Staver.
However, the attorney says when Christians "show up" and "advance the gospel for principled reasons, then God is ultimately glorified -- and I think this is a great decision along those directions."
Staver adds that "educators need education about American history and the Constitution -- and certainly the First Amendment protects free speech."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
