Local Scouting Suffers in Constitutional Fight

[fgoodwin]

Local Scouting Suffers in Constitutional Fight

 

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=65156

 

Boy Scouts can no longer use school "backpack mail" to reach students.

 

By Ken Millstone/The Almanac

May 3, 2006

 

The 20 or so Boy Scouts and prospective Scouts who met for a barbecue and open house in the field behind Seven Locks Baptist Church April 30 spent the afternoon building fires and climbing on a monkey bridge the Scouts had built. They probably didnt spend much time pondering the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

 

But a more than two-year Constitutional law dispute in Montgomery County was one of the main reasons they were there.

 

Across the county, we arent reaching the kids. Enrolled membership were losing more than 10 percent per year, said Geoffery Wolfe, Scoutmaster for Troop 1434 in Potomac, which hosted the event. Scouts is heading down and an important reason is because were not letting the kids know where the activities are.

 

Wolfe has had to ramp up outreach activities like the April 30 open house after Montgomery County Public Schools stopped allowing the Boy Scouts to send home informational fliers with its students.

 

IN JULY, 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond ruled that Montgomery County Public Schools could not prevent a religious after-school club an arm of the Child Evangelism Fellowship from distributing fliers to students through the backpack mail system, in which students bring home school announcements and other information.

 

MCPS had argued that having students carry home the fliers would constitute government endorsement of a religious activity, violating the Establishment Clause.

 

Following the ruling, MCPS changed its backpack mail policy, making non-profit youth sports leagues the only extracurricular groups allowed to send home fliers with the school and government announcements.

 

The Scouts can still display information at school events, with prior approval from MCPS.

 

The revised policy, adopted on July 29, 2004, has kept the Child Evangelism Fellowship out and the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt upheld the policy change, but the religious group has appealed the new policy ruling to the 4th Circuit.

 

WHAT STARTED as a legal dispute has become an administrative boon for MCPS.

 

The school systems June 2004 Accountability News and Notes newsletter stated that following a record 488 public comments on the policy change, Many schools report that implementation of the policy has been straightforward and the push back minimal, with few notable exceptions.

 

The schools were being inundated with requests to send fliers home and the School Board wanted to relieve the schools of that huge burden, said Brian Edwards, an MCPS spokesman.

 

Thats little comfort to groups like the Boy Scouts.

 

Boy Scouts relies heavily on the ability to distribute flyers and recruitment information to students to take home to their parents. Very often, flyers distributed at schools are the only way that interested families become aware of our programs, wrote Matthew J. Budz, assistant director of Field Services for the Boy Scouts National Capital Area Council in an Aug. 2, 2004 letter to schools Superintendent Jerry Weast. Being denied the ability to reach those students and parents will result in thousands of youth being deprived of the opportunity to participate in Scouting.

 

THE BOY SCOUTS may be losing ground to other activities.

 

Boy Scouting begins in sixth grade and many Boy Scouts are traditionally graduates of Cub Scouting, which ranges through fifth.

 

But many Cub Scouts are deciding not to make the jump to the next level, Wolfe said.

 

Norwood School parent Gil Lovett said his son Lee, a fifth-grader, will likely be one such child.

 

When you get to this point its time consuming and you kind of have to pick and choose what you want to do and [Lee is] into a lot of different sports which he really enjoys, Lovett said while Lee participated in the open house at Seven Locks Baptist. Once you hit fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade you get to that age where youve got to start selecting.

 

I have a theory that youth sports is a big competitor and that youth sports is starting at an earlier and earlier age, said Hunter Prillaman, a Scout Leader for Troop 1434, pointing out several children at the open house that were wearing MSI soccer uniforms.

 

As Prillaman spoke about working harder to reach prospective Scouts, a parent complimented him on the troops Web site.

 

Thats one way, Prillaman said. Maybe we should get on My Space.

 

[sidebar]

 

Religious Group?

 

The Greater Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America has had trouble recruiting new Scouts following a court ruling involving a religious group that wanted to distribute fliers through Montgomery County Public Schools.

 

As a result of the ruling, MCPS changed its policy and keeps out all non-sports extracurricular groups.

 

The Greater Capital Area Council has protested the change on the basis of First and Fourteenth Amendment rights among other Constitutional arguments.

 

But the Boy Scouts a national non-profit organization has itself been at the center of high-profile debates about the religious inclusion and civil rights.

 

Boy Scouts of America states on its legal issues Web site that it is a "nonsectarian association of persons who believe in God."

 

It excludes atheists and agnostics but has members of virtually every major faith in the United States. The Scout Oath includes a vow of "duty to God."

 

In numerous federal cases, such as Welsh v. Boy Scouts of America in the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, courts have upheld the Boy Scouts' right to such exclusions in the face of civil rights law challenges.

 

"The Boy Scouts have tested in the courts their ability to define their own moral principles and their ability to exclude those who do not adhere to them," said Geoffrey Wolfe, Scoutmaster of Troop 1434 in Potomac.

 

But Wolfe said that his troop is completely non-discriminatory and that all parts of Scouting related to religion are administered by Scouts' parents.

 

At least locally, religion isn't a focus anyway, he said.

 

"The kinds of things the boys sign up for trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean reverent are unarguable," Wolfe said. "They just arent arguable."

[funscout]

I hope I'm not in trouble for using "back pack mail" at our local schools! When any of my scouts miss a meeting, I find it more convenient to simply drop a note off to their school, for them to take home to their parents. This saves me a bunch of phone calls in the evenings when I am busy with my own family.

 

I know my situation isn't like the bulk "back pack mailing" that the article talked about, but it got me thinking!

[John-in-KC]

Our school district prohibited ALL backpack mail some years ago. Doesn't matter ... scouting, athletics, businesses, if it's not from the District, it doesn't go home with the child.

[packsaddle]

A technicality, but the ruling does NOT deny access by the boys to scouting. It DOES deny them one form of information (backpack mail) and if scouting can't find another way to get the info out the effect may be similar. But technically, the boys still have access if they find out about it. BTW our schools also deny all backpack mail if not from the school. It hasn't hurt our recruiting at all.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Giving out fliers is an easy method to attract an audience and get numbers. It is more difficult to develop a quality program and to advertise one boy and parent at a time but it works.

 

Here was my challenge to our Scouts, "It is your program, you have developed it, if you like what you are doing, if you are proud of it, then you will bring your friends." and they did. FB

[Hunt]

Backpack mail is a nice way to target the specific age group you're trying to reach--boys in the fifth grade. There are still ways to reach the fifth grade boys who are already Cub Scouts, but it's harder to reach those who aren't. Sometimes PTAs will help by letting you use their address directories for mailings, but sometimes they won't. I agree that personal contacts are by far the most effective, but I would prefer to have multiple ways to get the word out.

[resqman]

Our county school system just implemented a no flyer rule. BSA has in the past sent out flyers twice a year in the elementary schools, spring and fall roundups. It lists all the Packs in the county, meeting locations, and contact point. The families then decide which Pack is best for them.

 

Our COuncil is scrambling to find a way to annouce the round ups to their target audience. Fortunately the principal of my son's school is an Eagle along with his 2 sons. He said he could not put our Packs announcement flyer in the backpacks due to the new ruling BUT could make a mention in the Principal's Newsletter for the next 2 weeks.

 

The council is trying to take advantage of a loophole that indicates that if the PTA supports the flyer, then the PTA can request to allow the flyer. That is still under investigation so don't know the results.

 

This will be our first roundup without school annnouncements. We are interested in the results. Between the spring and fall roundup, we usually pick up around 15-20 boys to keep our total boy membership around 50-60. As a pack we have allowed the council to advertise globably and we have attracted enough to keep our numbers fairly constant. If that advertising goes away, we will have to start spending money that otherwise would have provided program.