High School Discrimination?

Should student clubs in high schools be allowed to discriminate on certain factors when it comes to membership and voting rights?

The answer may be a tricky one.

At UNCG and other colleges across the nation, certain student clubs (like politically affiliated groups and religious groups) are allowed to limit membership to only those who ascribe to their beliefs. For example, the UNCG College Democrats and College Republicans can limit membership and voting rights to only those students are are affiliated Democratic or Republican, respectively. Religious groups like Intervarsity or Every Nation Campus Ministries could limit membership to only those students who ascribe to the group’s Christian principles.

Should the same ability to limit membership be extended to high school student groups?

That is the question being considered in a federal court case in the United States 9th Circuit. A high school bible club has taken out a lawsuit to be able to be recognized by the school and the school’s Associated Student Body (aka student government) while at the same time being able to limit membership to only those students who affirm “the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.”

According to an article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Christian students at Kentridge High School say they should have the right to discriminate based on religion. The Associated Student Body disagreed, however, and refused to give the club a charter. The Christian students, in turn, took out a lawsuit.

Controversy over various high school student groups has taken center stage in many areas across the nation. Usually the controversy surrounds high school gay-straight student organizations. When LGBT and straight allied students seek to form these groups the played-out scene of School Boards balking, community members uprising and the final votes to ban such groups (like what is currently happening in Rowan County, NC) take shape and usually end in federal lawsuits granting school access to the groups under the Federal Equal Access Act (FEAA).

The difference between gay-straight student clubs and religious groups like the one students want to form at Kentridge High School lies in the fact that the gay-straight groups don’t discriminate on any factors whatsoever when it comes to membership and voting; this religious group wants to discriminate.

The FEAA was originally passed by Congress in 1984 in order to prevent public schools from outright banning religious student groups. The Act has, over time, come to allow such groups as gay-straight student clubs.

While the FEAA does not address membership discrimination by student groups, some school districts have written policies to prevent such actions.

In the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System, groups with a political or religious bent are allowed to meet on campus, but cannot be school-sponsored. The policy covering these groups (Policy 6146: “Student-Initiated Non-School-Sponsored Extra Class Activities”) also notes that a school principal can deny a group if he or she believes the group with violate federal discrimination laws by prohibiting membership based solely on students’ “race, ethnic origin, sex or handicapping condition.”

While the policy doesn’t address discrimination based solely upon religious or political belief the policy also notes that a principal can deny a group if he or she believes, “The group’s meeting will not be truly voluntary in that the group or its members will coerce or attempt to coerce other students to attend its meeting in a disruptive, proselytizing or offensive manner.”

Laws and policies across the country just don’t seem to be very clear when it comes to this issue. Supporters of the Kentridge High School bible club cite the First Amendment and the students’ rights to Freedom of Speech, Association and Assembly. Opponents of the group say that discrimination on any basis shouldn’t be allowed within a public high school setting, an institution in which most students (depending on the truancy laws of each state) are forced to be involved.

As I’ve said, it is a tricky issue. From the opponents’ perspective, the club should definitely be allowed but not if it is going to discriminate. Freedom of Speech is one thing, but students shouldn’t be able to discriminate in a place where most students don’t have the choice of leaving. They don’t have to join the club, but they should have the option of doing so if it is a part of a public school.

Just like straight students are allowed to join gay-straight student clubs, groups formed with the major, although not sole, intent of providing support to LGBT students, non-Christians should be able to join bible study clubs. Who knows… maybe the non-Christian students will learn something. Maybe they will convert. Maybe there is a Christian student who wants to join but is un-willing to say that the Bible is completely infallible.

From the supporters’ perspective the issue is as simple as a basic reading of the First Amendment.

I don’t know how the case will end up, but I do think this is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Posted in High School, Politics, Religion, United States |