Non-Profits: Stopping School Handouts Would Hurt

[fgoodwin]

Non-Profits: Stopping School Handouts Would Hurt

 

http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,74986

 

10/13/2008

Ben Dunsmoor

 

Backpacks in Sioux Falls may be a little lighter if the school board decides to pass a new policy. The Sioux Falls School Board is considering a policy that would tighten the restrictions on the handouts that go home with students.

 

The board started to review it's policy on handouts after students took home a school directory produced by The Sioux Falls Shopping News that contained an ad for the Alpha Center which read, "Abortion Hurts Women."

 

The new policy would allow only handouts from the school, government agencies, or partners involved with school programs.

 

The School Board will take public input for one month before it makes a decision on the new policy. One group that is giving it's input on this new policy is the Sioux Council of the Boy Scouts, because when the Sioux Falls School Board suspended the policy that allows organizations to send home fliers with students a month ago they saw an immediate impact.

 

[excerpted]

[Gold Winger]

Our schools did that. They banned all handouts except those from sports leagues, county agencies and day care centers that rented from the schools. In short, groups that brought in the big bucks. The PTA was also exempted which left a big loophole. Organizations, such as BSA, would ask the PTA to distribute their literature and they'd include it in their newsletter. After a month of that, the school board figured out what was going on and shut that down.

 

The whole mess started because a flier at one school went home advertising an after school bible study club. So much for freedom of thought and the ability to have free access. Islam is okay for an after school activity but christianity wasn't.

 

Cub Scouts took a big hit that year.

[evmori]

At least the ban seems consistent! Sounds like it is time to start posting these notices on the PTA web site & getting the word out via e-mail!

[Beavah]

Yah, been here before, eh?

 

PTA's are separate entities from a school district in almost all cases. Frequently they are separately incorporated.

 

If a school lets a PTA send home flyers, it must let Scouting and other NFP youth service agencies send home flyers.

 

Dat's the law.

 

Same if they allow flyers from day care centers, sports leagues and the like.

 

Federal Office of Civil Rights handles complaints and pursues investigations of violations. Penalty for a school district who refuses to comply is loss of all federal funding.

 

Let your school officials know. I expect they really don't want to get into that kind of mess, they're just dealin' with a few problem parents who want to make a stink about scout flyers or whatnot. If they can point to the law and explain that their hands are tied, most of the shouters will go away.

 

Otherwise, drop a dime on 'em, eh?

 

Beavah

 

[scoutldr]

Can individual schools "opt out"? The school which hosted (not chartered) our Cub Pack got a new principal a few years back and she refused to let the DE in the door to distribute flyers or do boy talks. The years she was there, the Pack went from 150 scouts to about 6. Her rationale was that we were discriminating against the girls by not including them. They were allowed to continue using the spaces for meetings, as that decision was made "downtown." At the school down the road, the Principal also served as CM and the Pack there flourished.

 

New prinicpal now...we'll see how it goes. Maybe too little too late.

[Beavah]

No option for individual schools to opt out.

 

Often administrators with an agenda will try to do their own thing, eh?

 

Dat's what the law is for. Failure to rein in that principal puts the entire district's funding at risk.

 

Schools can technically create a closed forum, where they send only school communications home, and allow only school-sponsored activities. Practically speakin', that's almost impossible to maintain and still pass levies. No PTA, no summer sports camps, no tutoring services, no notices about SAT or ACT testing or summer internships.

 

Da public by and large wants access to their schools, eh? Good for the kids, good for the community. We scoutin' families help pay for the buildings and the backpack flyers, eh?

 

Beavah

(This message has been edited by Beavah)

[Lisabob]

Beavah has it right here. We went through this a couple of years ago with our local school district. Our district exec took the matter to his superiors at council, who consulted their legal advisers. When word came back that schools could NOT selectively exclude the BSA, and when that was clearly explained (in writing, I believe) to the school district, they backed down.

 

This is not a state, county, town, district, or school-by-school decision. This is national law. However keep in mind that most school principals (and some superintendents) are not that current on national law and may need direction.

 

 

[Gold Winger]

"This is not a state, county, town, district, or school-by-school decision. This is national law. However keep in mind that most school principals (and some superintendents) are not that current on national law and may need direction."

 

Point me to this law. One would think that a school system with a nearly $2 billion budget would have lawyers who know the law.

 

I know that the Boy Scouts must be allowed to use the facilities. However, we're talking about what literature may be distributed and after a battle which involved lawyers stomping their feet at each other, the school board came up with their short list of approved organizations. School related organizations, tenents of the schools, county departments, and sports. Sports was included because they "contribute to the health and welfare of the youth."

[Lisabob]

OK GW, here's your pointer. This is included in the revision of No Child Left Behind. Here's the title of the relevant section: "Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act" Full text of the act can be found here:

http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t17t20+5426+0++(%27patriot%20act%27%20and%20Boy%20Scouts)

 

 

Thought I'd also add this, in case people are unsure of what the actual text means. The Code of Federal Regulations includes all federal bureaucratic "rules" of interpretation. W/ regard to this Act, the CFR states the following:

 

"Clarifying that equal access under the Act includes not only access to school facilities for meetings before, during, or after school, but also includes access to other activities related to an intention by any group officially affiliated with the Boy Scouts or any other Title 36 youth group to conduct a meeting within a covered

entity's designated open forum or limited public forum. These other activities include, but are not necessarily limited to, means of communication and recruitment."

 

The above quote, and a lengthy discussion of the "rule" and how it was arrived at (including summaries of public input into the process) are available here:

http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/finrule/2006-1/032406a.html

 

(This message has been edited by lisabob)

[Gold Winger]

I wonder if the school board danced around that by saying that we're allowed to have our flyers in the school, on the rack by the door, bu that they won't put them into the take home packs.

 

Hmmmmm . . . interesting. One more the legal wonks to worry about.

[Lisabob]

If you dig still deeper into the rules that accompany this Act, it states that the BSA is to be accorded access no less favorable than the most favorable treatment accorded to other groups. So, if there are take-home packets with flyers from other groups then no, schools should not be allowed to limit BSA flyers to a rack by the door.

 

Note I am not saying that all schools abide by the provisions of this Act, nor that it is always always always in the best interest of the local BSA group to mount a full battle. There are circumstances under which picking your battles wisely might be more appropriate. But that's what the law says, anyway. (Also note this is all fairly new, I think from 2006 or 2007.)

[Gold Winger]

Thanks.

[Gold Winger]

I haven't had to deal with the elementary schools for more than a few years. I asked around and found that the schools are complying with the law . . . the bare minimums.