School and Religion - Students Take on the Government

Farmington, Michigan - Opponents of the removal of religion from public school systems have recently received support in their endeavors. The Equal Access Act was passed in 1984 to combat discrimination against student religious groups in public schools.

In short, the EAA is a law that prohibits schools from denying students the right to participate in non-curricular activities, within that school, pertaining to religious affairs. Religious groups, or clubs, may advertise its meetings over the public address system, on the school's bulletin boards, be listed as a school group on the school's web site, be listed in the school's yearbook, use the school's photocopying machines and have announcements broadcast over the school's internal television network.

More recently, the EAA was used as the foundation of a lawsuit against school districts that opposed Gay-Straight Alliances within the schools. The lawsuit appeared before the Supreme Court, ending with a judgment in the Alliances favor. The consensus was that the school must allow the Gay-Straight Alliance or ban all non-curriculum groups from assembling on school property.

In Farmington, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts has ruled that ALIVE, a Bible club at Farmington High School must have equal access as all other clubs at the school. The school district questioned the group's mission statement believing that the group intended to administer a desegregation of church and state within the school. A representative of the school board stated that the school districts opposition was out of commitment to a resolution that balanced the needs of the students with the districts legal obligations concerning the separation of church and state.

Issues involving religion and education are hotly debated topics. Each branch of the federal government, as well as many state and local governments, has attempted to clarify the appropriate relationship between religion and public schools. This, in its ineptness, has caused continued renewal of the debate. This law is a fragile one, involving both the prohibition on government-sponsored religious expression and the protection of individual religious expression.

Simply, the government has continued to clarify, edit, and state the laws in such a way that would not seem overbearing on individual rights of both sides of the issue, while still maintaining the separation of government and religion. A good question would be to ask how the government could continue to make laws regarding the involvement of religion and still maintain a separation between religion and government. Therein lies the crux of the matter.

The EAA and the recent victory in a district court in Michigan shows that despite its attempts at separating church and state, the government truly can do very little in the way of religious freedom. Moreover, if the school is funded by the state and the student group is a voluntary basis, schools hands are tied as to what the foundation of that group can or cannot be. Prayer may not be allowed in classrooms any longer, but students involved in non-curricular religious groups should have no fear of persecution from expressing their religious beliefs to like-minded classmates.