|
EQUAL ACCESS ACT
52
U.S.C. § 4071. Denial of Equal Access prohibited.
(a) Restriction of limited open
forum on basis of religious, political, philosophical, or
other speech content prohibited.
It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school which receives Federal
financial assistance and which has a limited open forum
to deny equal accessor a fair opportunity to, or discriminate
against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within
the limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political,
philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.
(b)
"Limited open forum" defined
A public secondary school has a limited open forum whenever such school grants
an offering to or opportunity for one or more noncurriculum
related student groups to meet on school premises during
noninstructional time.
(c) Fair opportunity criteria
Schools shall be deemed to offer a fair opportunity to students who wish to
conduct a meeting within its limited open forum if such
school uniformly provides that--
(1)
the meeting is voluntary and student-initiated;
(2)
there is no sponsorship of the meeting by the school, the
government, or its agents or employees;
(3)
employees or agents of the school or government are present
at religious meetings only in a nonparticipatory capacity;
(4)
the meeting does not materially and substantially interfere
with the orderly conduct of educational activities within
the school; and
(5)
nonschool persons may not direct, conduct, control, or regularly
attend activities of student groups.
(d) Construction of subchapter
with respect to certain rights
Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to authorize the United States
or any State or political subdivision thereof--
(1)
to influence the form or content of any prayer or other
religious activity;
(2)
to require any person to participate in prayer or other
religious activity;
(3)
to expend public funds beyond the incidental cost of providing
the space for student-initiated meetings;
(4)
to compel any school agent or employee to attend a school
meeting if the content of the speech at the meeting is contrary
to the beliefs of the agent or employee;
(5)
to sanction meetings that are otherwise unlawful;
(6)
to limit the rights of groups of students which are not
of a specified numerical size; or
(7)
to abridge the constitutional rights of any person.
(e) Federal financial assistance
to schools unaffected
Notwithstanding the availability of any other remedy under the Constitution
or the laws of the United States, nothing in this subchapter
shall be construed to authorize the United States to deny
or withhold Federal financial assistance to any school.
(f) Authority of schools with
respect to order, discipline, well-being, and attendance
concerns
Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to limit the authority of the
school, its agent or employees, to maintain order and discipline
on school premises, to protect the well-being of students
and faculty, and to assure that attendance of students at
meetings is voluntary.
§
4072. Definitions
As
used in this subchapter--
(1)
The term "secondary school" means a public school
which provides secondary education as determined by State
law.
(2)
The term "sponsorship" includes the act of promoting,
leading, or participating in a meeting. The assignment
of a teacher, administrator, or other school employee to
a meeting for custodial purposes does not constitute sponsorship
of the meeting.
(3)
The term "meeting" includes those activities of
student groups which are permitted under a school's limited
open forum and are not directly related to the school curriculum.
(4)
The term "noninstructional time" means time set
aside by the school before actual classroom instruction
begins or after actual classroom instruction ends.
§
4073. Severability
If any provision of this subchapter or the application thereof to any person
or circumstances is judicially determined to be invalid,
the provisions of the remainder of the subchapter and the
application to other persons or circumstances shall not
be affected thereby.
§
4074. Construction
The provisions of this subchapter shall supersede all other provisions of Federal
law that are inconsistent with the provisions of this subchapter.
| 
