Handouts
If students have the right to distribute secular, non-curriculum
based literature, then students also have the right to distribute
religiously based literature under the same terms. However, the
school has the right to designate and restrict certain times
and places for distribution. It is also in the school’s
right to designate the manner in which the distribution takes
place.
It would be completely appropriate for a student to hand out
religious tracts, Christmas cards, scriptures, and religious
club information, just to name a few before school starts, at
the end of school or during lunch, as long as other non-curricular
groups are allowed to do the same.
If students are allowed to hand out candy, such as around Christmas
time, Halloween or in-class parties, with phrases like “happy
holiday” or other secular expressions printed on them,
then students are also permitted to hand out candy with scriptures
or other religious phrases printed on them.
However, it would be inappropriate to hand out religious literature
if the school prevented other non-curricular groups from doing
so, or if religious literature was given out during times that
were not allotted for such action. For instance, a school may
allow non-curricular groups to hand out literature before and
after school, but not during lunch. Therefore, handing out religious
literature during lunch would be inappropriate.
A great way to exercise your freedom of religious expression
is to follow in the footsteps of an Ohio student. He decided
that since other non-curricular groups were permitted by his
public school to hand out literature between classes, he and
a couple of his friends would create their own religious underground
newspaper and distribute it to their classmates during the allotted
time.
The content on this page has been reviewed by The Rutherford Institute.
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