December 13, 2007 The Dallas Morning News

It is the time of year in the Plano school district for holiday card contests, secret Santas and legal wrangling over student religious rights.

The latest is a legal group's claim that school district officials have thumbed their noses at a judge's ruling on when elementary school children can hand out church pamphlets and other religious materials to other students. Plano school officials say they're following the law.

"The court has determined that part of their policy is unconstitutional, but they haven't changed it," said Hiram Sasser, an attorney for Liberty Legal Institute, a Plano law group.

A judge ruled in February that the school district can't stop elementary children from handing out materials during lunch. The order was part of a broader, long-standing First Amendment lawsuit against the district.

District officials say they appealed the latest ruling because they don't want to disrupt elementary cafeterias.

"We thought we were doing the right thing," Superintendent Doug Otto said. "You get a lot of kids in there, and they get distracted easily and pretty soon lunchtime is over."

Dr. Otto said that in the meantime, principals have followed the judge's order. School officials also alerted parents of the court order in a policy handbook this fall.

But they did not change a district policy to reflect the ruling. Mr. Sasser complained about the discrepancy to school officials.

"When the judge says part of your policy is unconstitutional, you're required to remove that part of the policy, no ifs ands or buts," said Mr. Sasser, whose group is suing the school district. "It's sort of like when a judge orders somebody in a criminal case to go to jail. You don't get to go, 'Well, I'm appealing, so I'm going to live my life as a free person.' "

School officials on Wednesday added a disclaimer to a student expression portion of district policy, which is posted online. The disclaimer says district officials won't enforce the lunchtime ban "until further ruling from the court."

Dr. Otto says the changes end there.

"We didn't want to have to change our policy and then change it back if the appeal was successful," he said. "Then it looks like we're really flip-flopping.

"The bottom line is, we're complying with the order," he said.

An aide to Judge Richard Schell, who oversees the federal court case, declined to comment.

Plano has been the center of debate over religious expression since 2003, when school officials told an 8-year-old boy during a holiday party that he could not hand out pens that described the Christian origin of candy canes.

The boy's parents sued the district in December 2004, alleging a pattern of violations of religious rights and free speech.

Since then, district officials have tweaked the student expression policy over time.

A decision about whether the old and new policies are constitutional is pending in federal court.

At stake are hundreds of similar school district policies across Texas, Mr. Sasser said.

Jennifer Uriostegui, a Plano mother of two, says she's torn on the issue.

Her instincts as a mother tell her that letting children roam around the lunchroom is a recipe for disaster. But her instincts as a Christian tell her kids should be able to talk about Jesus without fear of censorship.

"They should be able to express themselves," said Mrs. Uriostegui, whose daughter, Daisy, is in kindergarten at Memorial Elementary School in Plano. "There's more pressure, I think, put on the Christian community than, say, another religion."

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