SUMMARY:

Schools must provide a limited public forum for students at all school events at which a student is to speak publicly. Student voluntary expression of a religious viewpoint must be treated in the same manner as viewpoints of students expressed on a secular topic.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Local districts must adopt a policy on limited public forums and voluntary student expression of religious viewpoints, and such policy shall: 
  • provide a neutral method for the selection of student speakers at school events and graduation ceremonies; 
  • ensure that a student speaker does not engage in obscene, vulgar, lewd, or indecent speech;
  • state that the student's speech does not reflect the endorsement, sponsorship, position, or expression of the school system;
  • ensure that student expression shall not be excluded from the limited public forum because the subject is expressed from a religious viewpoint.
• Ensure that students may express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other assignments without discrimination. 
• Students shall not be penalized or rewarded based on the religious content of their work.
• Students must be allowed to organize religious groups or gatherings and have access to school facilities to the same extent as other noncurricular groups.
• The bill encourages local systems to adopt the language of a "model policy" contained within the legislation. The policy defines grade level, student office, and other criteria for students eligible to participate in school speaking events, including graduation ceremonies.

POINTS TO CONSIDER:

• Court decisions, including those of the U. S. Supreme Court, already define issues related to student expression,including religious expression, use of school facilities, etc.
• The bill places limitations on local board and school decisions as related to speakers at school events.
• This bill seems to require that schools establish a limited public forum, and this would be an unconstitutional encroachment on the local board's authority to control and manage its schools.
• The bill is in conflict with the Equal Protection Act which leaves the decision to create a limited public forum to board policy and practice.
• The bill could result in situations that would be unconstitutional based on established United States Supreme Court decisions, e.g., a student announcer at football games would result in qualifying another student to express a religious point of view.  Under existing case law, that would be unconstitutional. 
• The content of this legislation is almost word-for-word the same as the Texas "Schoolchildren's Religious Liberties Act," an Act that according to news reports "has created statewide confusion over how districts should comply with the law and added a new layer of divisiveness to an issue already well know for passionate discord -- religion in schools."
• The Texas law arose from lawsuits "from Plano to Santa Fe" where school districts have curtailed activities such as use of school resources to promote a Bible club, and that is not the situation in Georgia. 

EFFECTIVE DATE:

2009-2010 School Year