Students fight suspensions over handing out candy canes

By The Associated Press

01.03.03

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WESTFIELD, Mass. — Seven Westfield High School students are fighting the suspensions they received for passing out candy canes and religious messages to classmates before Christmas, their lawyer said yesterday.

Erik Stanley, a lawyer for the Orlando, Fla.-based Liberty Counsel, said the high school principal gave the students in-school suspensions yesterday. School Superintendent Thomas McDowell then granted a stay of the suspensions at the parents' request, Stanley said.

"The superintendent said he would stay the suspensions and have the matter decided at a hearing before the school board meeting," Stanley said. "The matter is pretty much on hold until then."

Stanley did not say when the meeting was scheduled. McDowell did not return repeated telephone calls from the Associated Press yesterday.

The students say their rights to free speech and expression were violated when they were told not to deliver the candies and attachments.

But McDowell has said the students were told not to hand out the packages because school rules prohibit the distribution of anything that's unrelated to school activities or curriculum.

(Although some courts have held that a blanket ban on all student publications and distributions is allowable in a public school, most courts say schools may not prohibit such distributions altogether. Schools may place restrictions on the time, place and manner of distribution. Public school students, according to the First Amendment Center publication Finding Common Ground, "have a right to distribute religious literature to their schoolmates on the same terms as they are permitted to distribute other literature that is unrelated to school curriculum or activities.")

The Westfield students and their parents are considering whether to take legal action, Stanley said.

Update

Students suspended for passing out candy canes sue school
Attorney representing six Massachusetts high schoolers says policy barring distribution of anything unrelated to curriculum 'chills their speech.'  01.15.03

Related

Wisconsin school board: Girl may hand out religious cards
District revises material-distribution policy, publicly apologizes to elementary student barred from giving Christian messages to classmates.  08.29.01

Michigan school district to drop ban on religious handouts
Agreement to revise policy comes in wake of federal lawsuit filed by two students.  08.24.01