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WASHINGTON (RNS) When Sally tells Jimmy that he's going to
hell for believing in a false religion, is that Sally exercising her First
Amendment right to free
expression, or is that Billy getting bullied?
A broad coalition of educators and religious groups -- from
the National Association of Evangelicals to the National School Boards
Association -- on Tuesday (May 22) endorsed a new pamphlet to help teachers
tackle such thorny questions.
"There are those who believe that we can't have
restriction on bullying and protect free speech; Conversely there are those
who think that the rules against bullying are so important that they trump
any concern for free speech," said Marc Stern, the AJC's chief counsel
and lead author of the pamphlet.
"The organizations that have joined in these guidelines
believe that that's a false choice."
Among other groups endorsing the pamphlet: the Muslim Public
Affairs Council, the Christian Legal Society, the American Association of
School Administrators, the Hindu American Foundation, the Islamic Society
of North America, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.
A national conversation on bullying that began about a decade
ago has been punctuated in recent years by the highly publicized suicides
of harassed gay students, and "Bully," a new documentary on the
subject.
Now the federal government, 49 states and the District Columbia have
anti-bullying policies in place, noted Charles C. Haynes,
director of the nonprofit, Washington-based Religious Freedom Education
Project/First Amendment Center, which funded the pamphlet.
And while cases in which these rights conflict in schools are
rare, they do happen.
"There have been recently in the
news some situations in which anti-bullying policies have been used to
punish Christian students for expressing their personal religious beliefs
while at school," said Kim Colby, senior counsel of the Christian Legal Society.
Colby cited the case of a Fort Worth high school student last
year. In German class, Dakota Ary said he believed homosexuality is wrong,
and got suspended for it. His teacher had called the comment an instance of
possible bullying. Ary's suspension was later reduced.
Stern said the pamphlet was not written in reaction to such
cases.
"Each side to this debate can cite horror stories,"
Stern said. What the pamphlet hopefully will do, he continued, is give
educators a framework to avoid the horror stories, and teach students how
to express themselves civilly in a democratic society.
The pamphlet can fill a need the judicial system
has not, said Francisco M. Negron, general counsel to the National School
Boards Association.
"It talks about the difference
between what constitutes a personal attack, and the expression of an
idea," said Negron.
The pamphlet is based on current law governing speech rights
and public schools. Private
schools have far more leeway in regulating student speech.
Generally, though, giving students more,
not fewer, opportunities to express themselves tends to dampen the most
noxious speech, Haynes said.
"Most of the time you have problems when schools try to
censor the kids from saying anything," he said. "When they're
given an opportunity to be civil about their views, and to have a forum
that is theirs, in my experience, most
students take that very seriously and are very responsible."
Some excerpts from the pamphlet:
- "Words
that convey ideas are one thing; words that are used as assault
weapons quite another."
- "Repeatedly
bombarding a fellow student with otherwise protected speech, even if
it ostensibly conveys an idea, can also constitute harassment."
- "Schools
themselves are free to communicate in a non-coercive way their own
views on subjects that generate controversy in the community."
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