DON'T THE PENCILS VIOLATE A WEAPONS POLICY?:

Court bans religious gifts to classmates (Julia Duin, 9/21/03, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Kindergartners and first-graders may not distribute to their classmates gifts that bear a religious message, according to a ruling by a federal appeals court.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of a New Jersey elementary school in forbidding a boy from giving out pencils with the message "Jesus loves the little children" with a heart symbol substituted for the word love.

The classroom is not a place for student advocacy, wrote Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Anthony J. Scirica, speaking for the court in Walz v. Egg Harbor Township Board of Education. The school, he said, has a "legitimate area of control" regarding speech within school confines.

And the younger the student, "the more control a school may exercise," he added. [...]

Daniel was given the option of distributing the pencils and candy during recess or before and after school, he said.

Judge Scirica made a similar point, saying that schools can restrict speech in class or during school-sponsored events but should hold off when the speech occurs in hallways between classes or during free time.

So long as the school district applies its rules to every kind of message--for instance, they ban "Protect Widlife" pencils too--and they allow the kid to distribute the stuff before and after class it seems like a reasonable restriction.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 24, 2003 7:22 PM