School board to consider religious literature

The next Albemarle School Board meeting may bring about a battle of divine proportions, thanks to a recent attempt by two Hollymead Elementary students to distribute religious literature among their classmates. And—with a blessed hand from a pair of Virginia-based rights organizations—the battle may be a swift one.
    Albemarle School Board attorney Mark Trank confirms the nature of the incident. “My understanding is that a request of that nature was made at some point this summer at Hollymead.”
    Liberty Counsel—an active political branch of Dr. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg—claims on its website that it “sent a demand letter informing the [Albemarle] district that its literature distribution policy was unconstitutional.”  Trank elaborates that “there was some confusion, but once that was cleared up, [the students] were allowed to distribute pamphlets as any other outside organizations are allowed.”
    On Liberty Counsel’s website, LC president Anita Staver offers what may be a premature thank-you to Albemarle County public schools. “We are pleased the Albemarle County Public Schools will now allow students to distribute literature with religious viewpoints,” she writes.
Hold your arks, because the floodgates have not opened yet. Christy Sinatra, communications coordinator of Albemarle public schools, says that the School Board “has not recently taken action on the policies related to this issue.”
    “Basically, policies are under review at this time, but have not been changed at this day,” adds Trank.
    The Rutherford Institute, based in Charlottesville, laid the legal foundation for Liberty Counsel’s concerns.
    “When I saw the facts,” said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, “I said, ‘Oh, Good News!’”
    Specifically, Good News Club v. Milford School District—a 2001 Supreme Court case that popularized the Federal Equal Access Act. Equal Access precedents hold that public schools with a “limited open forum”—as simple as a single, student-run extracurricular club—must allow for similar groups, religious and secular alike.
    Equal Access laws protect the right of the Hollymead students to distribute information regarding extracurricular meetings as any school team or club might.
    Sinatra shares that policy discussions concerning religious literature in schools are “tentatively scheduled to take place during [the School Board’s] August 24th meeting.”