School District in Plano sued

[TexasStooge]

Plano ISD sued for censorship

Educators say they've already eased rules on handouts

By KIM BREEN / The Dallas Morning News

PLANO, Texas - A religious-rights law firm delivered notice of an early and unwanted Christmas present to the Plano school district Wednesday – a federal lawsuit alleging a pattern of religious censorship and violation of students' free-speech rights.

Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute first threatened to sue the district over a Christian message attached to a candy cane pen at a school holiday party last year. Attorneys said they've spent the past year gathering examples of "violation after violation" of constitutional rights in elementary schools.

The lawsuit seeks a restraining order to allow students to be able to hand out religious messages at elementary school holiday parties Friday. In addition, it seeks changes to district policies governing how and what students and parents can distribute on campus.

Plano school district attorneys said they question the law firm's motivation and pointed out that the district had already decided students can pass out whatever materials they want – so long as they're not obscene – at elementary school holiday parties Friday.

"This appears to be an effort by 'trial lawyers' to feed at the trough of the taxpayers' pockets, as opposed to truly addressing concerns through a nonlitigious manner," a statement from school district attorneys reads.

But Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel for Liberty Legal, said any policy change would be news to parents of at least one elementary school, where parents received notice this month that students could only bring "approved items" to the party. Among those were white paper plates and white napkins, sugar cookies, juice boxes and Hershey's Kisses.

"That's a great step," he said of the change. "If they're really going to do it, they might want to tell parents and us."

He said the district still has to change other policies before the plaintiffs would be satisfied.

Wednesday's lawsuit stems from discussions between a Thomas Elementary student, his parents and district staff last year. Jonathan Morgan wanted to hand out candy cane pens with an attached religious message, "The Legend of the Candy Cane." The message stated in part that the red stripe on a candy cane represented "The blood Christ shed for the sins of the world ..."

The lawsuit alleges that while other students were allowed to hand out "goodie bags," Jonathan was not because his included the religious message. He was allowed to put the bag on a table in the library for students to pick up, but other students were not required to do that, the lawsuit alleges.

But the publicity that came from the incident led other parents to call Liberty Legal and provide similar examples of religious discrimination. "It's just political correctness gone crazy," Mr. Shackelford said.

The lawsuit alleges that while on campus students were not allowed to hand out pencils with messages about Jesus on them or to invite other classmates to activities at their church.

Attorneys for the district said attorneys for Liberty Legal have not notified them about "specific instances infringing on students' religious freedoms. Instead, they have chosen to say nothing and apparently generate documentation of alleged incidents of which the district's administration is unaware."

After an afternoon news conference by Liberty Legal featuring Jonathan and his family, school district attorneys and Liberty Legal sent dueling press releases.

Mr. Shackelford said he has not been in contact with the school district since last December but disputes that this is the first time the district has learned of other incidents in the lawsuit.

"All these other things we called them about, and they refused to do anything about [them] a year ago."

District policy states that the First Amendment protects distributing literature and disseminating information. But, according to the policy, the district can restrict expression if it disrupts school activities.

Materials that are not controlled by the school cannot be distributed in hallways or classrooms, according to policy. Instead, materials can be left in a central location at the school

Jonathan is one of several children and parents named as plaintiffs in the suit filed in federal district court in Sherman. Several current and former district administrators are named as defendants, along with the district.

Deputy Superintendent Danny Modisette said that the district has changed its policy about Friday's holiday parties so that any material – as long as it isn't obscene – can be distributed among students this year.

Past First Amendment disputes include:

In November 2003, the district admitted violating parents' First Amendment rights during after-school meetings in 1998 and paid $400,000 for the parents' legal bills. The district had prevented parents from handing out materials that had not been approved by the district. The district argued it wanted to end the lawsuit to move on to other issues.

In January, Superintendent Doug Otto told principals that students would be prohibited from handing out personalized Valentine's Day cards. Instead, the students would leave the cards in boxes on their desks for classmates to pick from. Following parental complaints, administrators later reversed that decision.

[cswitwer]

The State of Washington just announced stricter college entrance requirements (starting 2008), but the schools can't currently afford to teach enough math and science to meet the requirements.>>>

The mone, time, and energy in Plano could be much better spent. Religion and our current cultural struggle with it should be addressed somewhere else, not in elementary schools. Then again, who sends kids to school with religious messages tied to their candy canes? Sigh.

Just my two cents!