Student Rights

A Q&A about walkouts, policy regarding absences, and other student political speech at public schools.

The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed the decision by the Supreme Court to let states decide for themselves whether to grant scholarship money to theology students, which the ACLU said undermines one of the core legal arguments in the President’s so-called "faith-based initiative."

The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Washington Supreme Court today to uphold a 1999 ruling by the Thurston County Superior Court which said that state-funding of students to attend religion-affiliated schools violates the Washington Constitution.

For several years the ACLU has worked with parents to keep creationist teachings out of the science classroom in Burlington-Edison High School. Responding to advocacy by the ACLU and concerned parents, the school board in 1998 backed a decision by the superintendent that the science teacher could no longer teach creationism in the guise of "intelligent design theory" in biology lessons.

Responding to advocacy by the ACLU-WA and local parents, Burlington-Edison School District has directed a teacher not to teach creationism in his science class. At its September meeting, the school board backed a decision by Superintendent Rick Jones that a science teacher could no longer teach creationism in the guise of "intelligent design theory" in biology lessons.