Equal Access

(School Law Cases and Concepts, p. 65-69)

Michelle Duke

MED 6490

January 26, 2010

Most student-led, special interest, non-curriculum clubs must be allowed to organize in most U.S. high schools. Their right to assemble is usually protected under a federal law -- the Equal Access Act, (20 U.S.C. §§ 4071-74)

Equal Access Act The legislation is now being used to

support the right of students to organize gay/lesbian/bisexual support groups.

The Act requires most schools to permit clubs of all religions, and none. Included might be groups which deal with Atheism, Goth culture, Heavy Metal music, Satanism, Wicca, other Neopagan religion, etc.

School districts can opt out of the Act by not allowing any non-curriculum clubs.

Board of Education of the Westside Community Schools v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226 (1990)

The U.S. Supreme Court, in an eight-to-one ruling, upheld the constitutionality of the Equal Access Act.

The Court identified “a limited open forum” when the school “grants an offering to or opportunity for one or more non-curriculum related student groups to meet on school premises during non-instructional time.”

Protects Christian groups Protects Satanists, Skinheads, Homosexuals for Christ,

Hemlock Society Members, Gay-Straight Alliande, and various nonviolent “gangs.”

Colin v. Orange Unified School District, 83 F.Supp.2d 1135 (Cal. 2000)

A gay-Straight alliance club was denied equal access to school facilities.

Plaintiffs - high school students at El Modena High School in the Orange Unified School District located in Orange, California .

Defendants - the Orange Unified School District, its Board of Education and its Administrators.

Facts

Plaintiffs (Anthony Colin and his friend Shannon MacMillan) wished to form a “Gay-Straight Alliance Club” at their high school. Plaintiffs claim that Defendants violated their rights under the Equal Access Act and their First Amendment rights of expression and association when they voted to deny Plaintiffs’ application to form the “Gay-Straight Alliance Club.”

Facts Public schools have an obligation to

provide an equal opportunity for all students to receive an education in a safe, non-hostile, nondiscriminatory environment.

Colin and the other founders of the Gay-Straight Alliance had reason to believe that their application would be accepted.

Issue At issue is whether the Plaintiffs are

likely to prevail on these claims and whether an injunction should be issued prohibiting the Defendants, while this action is pending, from continuing to deny the Plaintiffs the same access to El Modena facilities that is accorded to other student groups.

The US District Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331, for actions arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, as Plaintiffs allege violations of the Equal Access Act, 20 U.S.C. §§ 4071-4074, the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs seek declaratory relief under 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201-2202.

Holding The Court reasoned that by

recognizing such non-curriculum groups as the Asian Club and Christian Club, the board had established a limited open forum.

The court ruled that the group could meet on campus.

Legal Doctrine Ceniceros v. Board of Trustees of the

San Diego Unified School District,106 F.3d 878 (9th Cir. 1997) Because other clubs met during lunch

(non-instructional time), a religious club was allowed to met as well. The Court ruled that this did not violate the Establishment Clause.

Contrary Legal Doctrine Caudillo v. Lubbock Independent School

District, 311 F. Supp.2d 550 (Tex. 2004) The Court concluded that, given the group’s goals

and direct ink to sexually explicit material, the school district could ban a similar group under the “Maintaining-Order-and-Discipline Exception” to the Equal Access Act for avoiding disruptions to the school setting.

Significance

The proliferation of “Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs” in public high schools throughout the nation is due in large part to this significant ruling.