Mr. Wallace did not flunk his students on the grounds that their papers were religious in nature, but because they clearly did not meet the criteria he set out. Mr. Wallace had the authority, under school guidelines, to limit the topic for his students' papers. In this case, the topics chosen by the students were not relevant to the assignment. More information is needed. Under the federal Equal Access Act, secondary public schools must allow students to form religious clubs if the school allows other non-curriculum related clubs to meet during noninstructional time.
Schools do have the right to ban all non-curriculum clubs.
If Maryville High School allows other non-curriculum clubs to meet on school grounds, they must allow the Christian Action Club. If they ban all non-curriculum clubs, they may refuse to allow the Christian Action Club to meet on school grounds. Ms. Clavett's actions are academic instruction and, therefore, constitutional. Mr. Berry's actions are probably not constitutional because he appears to be promoting attendance at a Christian Church. If students wanted to know about services, they can be directed to the phone book to make their own inquiries.