Legal Question in Discrimination Law in Iowa

student & school conflict

A group of friends and I are in the process of starting a student prolife club. We asked our high school principal if we could use the school student center after hours to have our first club meeting. He was going to talk to the superintendent and get back to us. We are still waiting for the answer but it seemed very clear that it would be a no. Here is where the problem comes in. The principal basically implied that we most likely wouldn't be able to use it because we deal with a controversial issue. We have many atheists in our school and therefore I would consider christianity a controversial issue, ye the e-free church uses the school's facilities after hours every Wednesday night for their highschool youth program and a few years ago there was a school sponsored bible club that met at the school. I guess what I was wondering was if they could legally let some groups use the facilities and not others. It seems like discrimination to me.


Asked on 5/13/04, 7:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Luedeman solo practitioner

Re: student & school conflict

Wide latitude is taken by some school administrators in allowing some to use facilities and denying their use to others, particularly a third rail issue that has the potential for being a platform for people outside the school to capitalize on or agitate against, as this surely is. Often times these actions are taken with an imperfect knowledge of applicable law.

At this point they haven't denied you the use of school facilities, so your question is premature. There has to be real injury before the subject of discrimination and what to do about it can be taken up.

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Answered on 5/14/04, 8:16 am


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