Students Can Share Their Faith on Campus
The Supreme Court has ruled that student speech is protected by the First Amendment as long as the speech is not a material or substantial disruption.[1] This means that when students are outside of class they can share their faith with friends or other students. Student speech can only be restricted when it substantially interferes with school discipline. [2] Interference, however, does not include some students finding the speech offensive; mere discomfort at the subject matter is not sufficient to restrict student speech.[3]
A. Right to use evangelistic material when witnessing
It is generally recognized that high school students can distribute religious materials containing Bible verses.[4] Students can also use religious tracts when they share their faith because tracts and other evangelism materials constitute constitutionally protected speech.[5] As such, the First Amendment protects a student’s right to distribute religious materials on campus.[6] Religious tracts are considered pure speech, and “students are protected by the U.S. Constitution in the school environment. Prohibitions of pure speech can be supported only when they are necessary to protect the work of the schools or the rights of other students.”[7]
In fact, a school cannot even require students to give advance notice when they plan to pass out religious tracts.[8] Schools also lack the power to restrict students to a certain area when passing out religious tracts, unless the students are disrupting school discipline.[9]
B. Right to speak during non-instruction time
about a religious topic
If a school allows any students to speak publicly on campus about non-curriculum issues, the school cannot prohibit students from speaking about religion because it would be a violation of the Equal Access Act and Supreme Court precedent.[10] Because they are agencies of the government, public schools must also ensure that they do not impose overly broad or arbitrary speech regulations on students. In other words, any school action or school district policy that has an impact on student speech must not be applicable to constitutionally protected expression.[11] If a school allows any club to put on skits or lunchtime presentations, then the school must also allow students who want to put on religious skits or lunchtime presentations to do so as well.
[1] Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
[2]
[3]
[4] Rivera v.
[5] Heffron v. International Society of Krishna Consciousness, 452
[6] Rivera, supra n. 4, 721 F. Supp. 1189; Thompson v. Waynesboro Area School District, 673 F. Supp. 1379 (M.D. Pa. 1987); Nelson v.
[7] Rivera, supra n. 4, 721 F. Supp. 1189 (D. Colo. 1989).
[8] Thomas v. Collins, 322
[9] Johnston-Loehmer v. O’Brien, 859 F. Supp. 575.
[10] See, e.g., Prince v. Jacoby, 303 F.3d 1074, 1087 (9th Cir. 2002) ["While the school is certainly permitted to maintain order and discipline in the school hallways and classrooms by limiting the number and manner of both printed and oral announcements for all student groups, 20 U.S.C. §4071(f), it may not discriminate among students based on the religious content of [their] expression…"] and Rosenberger v. Rectors and the Univ. of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819, 828-829 (1995) ["It is axiomatic that the government may not regulate speech based on its substantive content or the message it conveys…The government must abstain from regulating speech when the specific motivating ideology or the opinion or perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction."]
[11] See, e.g.,Gooding v.
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- 973 Vista De Soledad
Soledad, CA 93960 - This school is part of the Soledad Unified school district.
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