These restrictions should be reasonable and must apply evenly to all non-school student literature. Public schools may prohibit the distribution of some literature altogether. Some examples would be materials that are obscene, defamatory, or disruptive of the educational environment. The Supreme Court has long recognized that public schools may choose to create off-campus released time programs as a means of accommodating the needs of religious students and parents. The schools may not encourage or discourage participation, or penalize students who do not attend.
Parents are the first and most important moral educators of their children.
Thus public schools should develop character education programs only in close partnership with parents and the community. Local communities need to work together to identify the core moral and civic virtues that they wish to be taught and modeled in all aspects of school life. In public schools, where teachers may neither promote nor denigrate religion, the core moral and civic values agreed to in the community may be taught if done so without religious indoctrination. At the same time, core values should not be taught in such a way as to suggest that religious authority is unnecessary or unimportant. Sound character education programs affirm the value of religious and philosophical commitments, and avoid any suggestion that morality is simply a matter of individual choice without reference to absolute truth.