From: rocky@NeoSoft.com (Joe Mullally)
Subject: Re: Bush Vetoes Stupid Education Reform Bill
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Distribution: tx
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 03:08:10 GMT

In article <1992Nov15.170146.16926@montagar.com> davidc@montagar.com (David L. Cathey) writes:
John Haugh wrote:
>> in school can pray over their lunch, they can't pray QUIETLY on a school
>> bus, any club but a religious club is granted access to school facilities,
>> and so on.
>
>	I have to agree with John on this point.  Separation of Church-n-State
>does not mean that religious groups are forbidden to use state (PUBLIC!)
>facilities.

From "America" magazine, Apr. 28, 1990
	The Equal Access Act "evolved" from a Supreme Court decision, 1981,
Widmar v. Vincent, in which the Court held that the Univ. of Missouri @ K.C.
couldn't deny a religious group the same access it granted to over 100
secular groups. Some basics about the Act are:
-The group must be student-initiated.
-The group must be non-school-sponsored.
-The group must not be supervised by a teacher.
-There is no sanction against non-compliant schools (the Act cannot be enforced
 by the Federal Gov't by means of withholding $). Non-compliant schools can
 (and have been) be sued, in order to force compliance.

From "Christian Century" magazine, Nov. 29, 1989:
"A common misconception ... is that the Supreme Court 'removed God from the
schools.' In fact, the Court mandated that religious expression in public
schools could neither be initiated nor sponsored by the gov't". and:
"While continuing to rule against religious expression when it is percieved
to be sponsored by the gov't, such as in the recent Pittsburg Creche' case,
the Court has tended, over the past decade, to support religious speech in
public education when initiated by students rather than by the state, in the
1981 case of Widmar v. Vincent, for example." and:
 
From "Time" magazine, June 18, 1990:
"To Bridget Mergens Mayhew, the idea of forming an extracurricular Christian
club at Omaha's Westside High School 5 years ago seemed simple enough. 'There
are a lot of pressures on kids,'she recalls,'and we just wanted to get 
together annd pray.' But school authorities turned down her plea, fearing it
would violate the seperation of church and state. The refusal touched off a 
fractious legal battle that last week culminated in a spectacular win for
Mayhew and her friends; a major decision from the U.S. Supreme Court barring
discrimination against voluntary religious clubs in public high schools.

By an 8-to-1 vote, the high bench upheld the constitutionality of Congress's
1984 Equal Access Act. The measure says that no public secondary school
recieving federal funds may bar student clubs on the basis of their 
'religious, political, or philosophical' views, if the school permits one
or more 'noncurriculum' groups to meet after school hours.






  However, the State then has an obligation to allow *all*
>religious groups equal access.  I would not have a problem with that.  However,
>there are some religious groups that *do* have a problem with that.  Heavens,
>their kids might be exposed to other beliefs and actually learn something!
>
>> -- 
>> John F. Haugh II                  [  TSAKC  ] !'s: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh
>> Ma Bell: (512) 251-2151           [ DoF #17 ]        @'s: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org
>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
>David L. Cathey		                |INET: davidc@montagar.com
>Montagar Software Concepts              |UUCP: ...!montagar!davidc
>P. O. Box 260772, Plano TX  75026-0772  |Fone: (214)-618-2117


-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Mullally (rocky@sugar.neosoft.com) PH:713-681-2495
"We need stronger death penalties..." George Bush, debate #2
Newsgroups: tx.politics