A national
Christian law group sued a suburban Philadelphia school
district on free speech grounds Wednesday, saying the
district censors prayer club members and threatens
discipline if students speak out against
homosexuality. The federal lawsuit against the Downingtown
Area School District mirrors others filed by the
Alliance Defense Fund that accuse schools of
implementing "Orwellian speech code[s]."
The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based group also
sued Georgia Tech this week over the right to express
antigay speech and has previously tried to block
same-sex marriage laws, antidiscrimination policies, and
workplace diversity training.
In the latest suit, the alliance said
Downingtown schools improperly forced a student group
to drop explicitly Christian or scriptural references
from its literature and to meet as the "Prayer Club"
instead of the preferred "Bible Club." Students also want
the right to air antigay and other viewpoints free
from punishment outlined in the school's speech code.
"[The school district] favors the viewpoints of
some clubs, e.g., the Gay Straight Alliance, while
banning only the viewpoints expressed by the Prayer
Club," states the suit, filed Wednesday on behalf of
students Stephanie and Steven Styer and others. A
school district spokeswoman did not immediately return
a phone message Thursday.
In February the Alliance Defense Fund sued Penn
State and Temple universities, saying their speech
codes infringed upon the right of conservative
students to air their political views. John Davidson, legal
director of Lambda Legal, a national gay rights group, said
courts have drawn the line at speech that incites a disturbance.
"There's this very perverse attempt to paint
people who are trying to impose their religious views
on other people as somehow the victims, because they
don't get to go up to other people and tell them they hate
them," Davidson said. "Since when do you have a right to be
mean to other people, particularly when you're dealing
with children?" he said. "I just don't get that they
think this is something that resources should be put into."
Alliance Defense Fund lawyer David French said
his clients are not fighting for the right to be
disruptive but to express their religious and
political views. "Nobody has the right to go to somebody at
a high school and yell in their face," French said.
"What the school seems to be doing here is saying one
side of an important cultural debate is welcome here
and the other side is not." (AP)
