Wisconsin school board: Girl may hand out religious cards
By The Associated Press
08.29.01
WALES, Wis. — Rather than face a federal court fight, a public school district has agreed to let a student hand out religious cards to classmates in school as long as they meet certain criteria.
The Kettle Moraine School Board agreed yesterday to publicly apologize to elementary school student Morgan Nyman. The board also passed policy revisions to clarify what types of material students may distribute and how students may express their religious beliefs during the school day.
"What we have said is that no one, including Morgan, will be denied distribution solely based on religious issues," Superintendent Sarah Jerome said.
The agreement, if approved by U.S. District Court, would settle a lawsuit filed by a conservative religious liberty organization on behalf of the girl. The district planned to file the settlement in court today, Jerome said.
The lawsuit was in response to the district's refusal to allow the second-grader to hand out Christian valentines and its decision to make her take back religious material she passed out at Halloween.
Florida-based Liberty Counsel accused the district of violating Morgan's free-speech and religious rights. The school district said at the time that allowing Morgan to distribute religious material with such messages as "Jesus loves you" and "Freely rely on God" would violate the separation of church and state.
The district decided to settle the lawsuit because residents didn't want the case to make "prime-time news," School Board President Michael Wagner said.
"Our whole direction was driven by what's going to be the best interest of the district and the best interest of kids," he said.
The Liberty Counsel and Morgan's parents, Jeff and Shanon Stockhausen, agreed to the settlement, Liberty Counsel president Mathew Staver said.
Staver said the settlement addressed all their concerns. His organization promised not to refile its claims after the suit is dismissed and agreed to drop a claim for monetary damages.
The district apologized to Morgan by having the following statement printed in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"This past Valentines Day, Morgan Nyman sought to distribute valentines that contained religious themes during a Valentines Day Exchange in her second grade classroom at the Cushing Elementary School. The school did not allow Morgan to distribute the valentines in class due to the religious nature of the valentines, but instead, redirected her to distribute them before or after school. To the extent the school's actions may have infringed upon Morgan's First Amendment right to free speech, the School District of Kettle Moraine apologizes."
Wagner said the statement did not admit school officials were wrong.
The district's policy changes forbid students from disseminating material that is obscene, lewd, pornographic, defamatory, insulting, libelous, commercial or "contrary to the mission of the school."
Elementary school students also cannot be exposed to literature that seeks "to market, solicit money, recruit, indoctrinate or convert," according to the policy.
"I believe it represents a message that other school boards should follow, and that is to create policies that give guidelines for both school administrators and for students regarding their constitutional rights," Staver said.