Reacting against the intent of the federal Equal Access Act, the Boulder, Colorado, school board has banned open forums in local public high schools. The school board prohibited any student-initiated group from meeting on school grounds unless it is school-sponsored and directly related to curriculum offerings.
When the Boulder school board unanimously approved the new policy, it found itself opposing two unlikely allies: a group of students who desired to meet for prayer before school twice a week, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). A Boulder spokesman for the ACLU defended the Equal Access Act as being constitutional, emphasizing that it should be exercised with care.
Congress passed the equal-access legislation last year to assure high school students the right to assemble on school property—during designated times for extracurricular pursuits—without regard for their reason for meeting. By having an “activities period,” Congress reasoned, the school created a “limited open forum” and could not discriminate against students desiring to meet for prayer or Bible study.
In December, the Boulder school board carried this aspect of the act to its logical extreme. The board declared that it would not permit any sort of “open forum.” The school board said it would countenance only curriculum-related groups whose “function is to enhance the participants’ educational experience and supplement the course materials [at school].” Thus, a foreign-language club would be protected, while a chess club would not.
Board members acted on the advice of attorney Gerald Caplan, who says the Equal Access Act is unconstitutional. The law has not yet been tested in court, but the U.S. Supreme Court was expected to decide in mid-January whether to review a similar case from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the law is in effect. Guidelines to help school officials interpret it were developed by a wide-ranging coalition of equal-access friends and foes, including the ACLU.
The Boulder controversy began when high-school senior Greg Ballou, a member of a Presbyterian youth group, organized a prayer group. When his request for meeting space was denied, he launched a petition drive that gathered 400 signatures—nearly one-quarter of the student body. Another Boulder student, Josh Friedman, organized a counter-petition drive, and a series of emotionally charged public forums convened to consider the issue.
An unequivocal editorial in the Denver Post boosted Ballou’s cause, calling the school board rule extreme, “possibly illegal,” and counterproductive. It cites Chief Justice Warren Burger, who wrote in a recent opinion that the U.S. Constitution “affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions, and forbids hostility toward any.”
The Denver newspaper concluded: “Public schools should embrace this concept by encouraging a diversity of interests, rather than stifling all opinions for fear of endorsing the beliefs of a few.”
The Christian Legal Society (CLS), representing students in the Williamsport appeal, sees the Boulder policy as an unreasonable extension of the Equal Access Act’s deliberately broad construction. The law does allow a school board to shut down its “open forum,” CLS attorney Kimberlee Colby said, “but the understanding was that equal access should not be used as a loophole.”
CLS will watch the Boulder situation intently, Colby said. “And the minute the ski club meets, we’ll consider taking action.”
