The Chambersburg Area School District’s school board has voted 5-4 to reverse its decision and provide the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) with the same rights and privileges as any other noncurricular club at the school.
Continue reading...As reported on Fox43.com, following a 5-4 vote by the local school board to refuse to recognize a Gay-Straight Alliance club at Chambersburg Area Senior High School, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Equality Pennsylvania sent a letter to the Chambersburg Area School District officials saying the Board is in violation of the federal Equal Access Act.
Continue reading...The Orlando Sentinel reports that the Lake County School Board is considering adopting new rules that would restrict extracurricular student clubs in secondary schools, as it is currently faced with a middle school student’s request, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, to form a Gay Straight Alliance club.
Continue reading...According to the Associated Press in The Miami Herald, Marion County school officials have entered into a consent decree that will allow the formation of a club of the Gay-Straight Alliance designed to promote understanding among gay and straight students at Vanguard High School.
Continue reading...Ocala.com reports that the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida has filed suit against the Marion County School Board and Superintendent Jim Yancey, alleging officials at Vanguard High School rejected a proposal by two students to start a Gay-Straight Alliance at the school.
Continue reading...The Deseret News reports that after initially denying Child Evangelism Fellowship of Santa Cruz County’s (CEF-SCC) request to distribute permission slips to students because the slips contained the word “Bible,” Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) reversed course.
Continue reading...During a workshop meeting, Bangor Area School Director Frank Addessi rebuked school board members, saying they were unfairly targeting students looking to create a Gay Straight Alliance club, reports the Pocono Record. At the meeting, the board reviewed an upcoming agenda item about the creation of Bangor’s Safe School Club at the Bangor Area High School.
Continue reading...A federal district court in Minnesota has denied an outside religious organization’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would require a school district to grant it the additional benefits provided to participants in the after school program. A federal district court in Minnesota has denied an outside religious organization’s motion for a preliminary injunction that would require a school district to grant it the additional benefits provided to participants in the after school program. The court determined that the school district had created a limited designated public forum when it set up its after school program, which allowed it to restrict access to the forum provided the restrictions were reasonable and viewpoint neutral. The court also found it “likely that the District could demonstrate that [the organization’s] participation in the After-School Program violates the Establishment Clause.”
Continue reading...A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (CA, OR, WA, AZ, MT, ID, NC, AK, HI, GU, MP) has held that San Diego State University (SDSU) did not violate the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of a Christian sorority and fraternity by denying the organizations official recognition based on their failure to comply with the university’s nondiscrimination policy. The panel also ruled that the student organizations had “raised a triable issue of fact as to whether the narrower policy was selectively enforced in this particular case, thereby violating Plaintiffs’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
Continue reading...U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to school districts nationwide, says Education Week, warning school officials against taking steps to ban students from forming gay-straight alliances and similar support groups in their schools. “Officials need not endorse any particular student organization, but federal law requires that they afford all student groups the same opportunities to form, to convene on school grounds, and to have access to the same resources available to other student groups,” states the letter.
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