According to a news release distributed by Liberty Counsel, a civil liberties

legal defense and education organization headquartered in Orlando, Fla.,

Christine Curran and her father, John Curran, filed a federal lawsuit

last Friday against the Broward County (Fla.) School District after Christine

was denied the right to distribute to her fellow classmates an invitation

to a meeting at her church.

According to Liberty Counsel, while Christine was a student at Driftwood

Middle School in Hollywood, Fla., she took a flyer to school one day to

pass out to her friends and other students. The flyer was an invitation

to hear a Christian youth speaker at her church. As Christine was going

to her third-hour class, a teacher saw her handing out the flyers in the

hallway between classes. The teacher confiscated the flyers and told Christine

that she could not distribute the flyers until she complied with district

procedure and that if she continued to distribute the flyers, she would

be "written up."

It seems the school district's policy requires all students to submit

literature to a school administrator before they will be allowed to distribute

the literature. The policy states, "Approval must be obtained from

a school administrator prior to handing out or posting materials, including

petitions and surveys; printing any school publications; collecting money

or selling advertisements for school publications; and/or distributing

any commercial, political, or religious material on school grounds."

If the literature at issue does not fall within the list contained in

the policy, it can be distributed without prior permission. The policy

requires that religious material, however, must always be submitted for

prior review by school administrators. The policy lacks guidelines, and

thus allows blatant censorship of religious viewpoints. Well, Seig heil!

Mat Staver, the president and general counsel for Liberty Counsel, stated,

"The school district's policy is clearly unconstitutional. The

Supreme Court has made it very clear that government may not treat religious

literature differently from other literature simply because it is religious.

That is what the district has done in this case."

Staver also stated, "Students do have the right to distribute religious

literature in the public schools and have the right to be free from discrimination

that is based upon the content of the literature they are distributing."

Staver concluded, "Christine should never have been told that she

must comply with this unconstitutional policy before she can exercise

her constitutional rights. The school district must learn that religious

speech and literature are highly protected forms of speech. Perhaps it

is time for the school district to go