No Nonprofit Flyers at MCPS Secondary Schools

As expected, the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education has decided not to send home backpack flyers at secondary schools from any nonprofit organizations, rather than tell a nutty anti-gay group that their flyers are inappropriate for students. Scouts, football, wrestling, summer camps, are out of luck.

The Gazette has it.

Next school year, the only Montgomery County students who will receive nonprofit fliers to take home will be those in elementary schools.

The Montgomery County Board of Education voted on Monday to change its policy on “backpack fliers.” Starting in the coming school year, nonprofits will not be allowed to have their fliers distributed to middle school and high school students.

The decision came on a recommendation of the school system’s policy committee, which was given the task of reviewing the policy after a flier sent home by Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays this school year provoked complaints from some school officials and gay rights advocates.  School system changes its policy on backpack fliers 

The schools have been sending home flyers from Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) for years. The flyers directly contradict the district's health curriculum and its counseling and personnel policies, but the district felt they had to hand them out in order to avoid a lawsuit.

After a period of public comment, the school board received 25 comments, with about as many in favor of changing the policy as opposed. Most of those who were opposed were members of nonprofit organizations.

Laura Berthiaume (Dist. 2) of Rockville was the only board member to vote against the policy changes Monday, saying the change might negatively impact membership in nonprofits, such as Boy Scouts and youth leagues, and that changing the rules might hurt the school system’s community bond.

Other board members disagreed, saying it is not the school system’s responsibility to provide marketing opportunities for the organizations.

A school is more than a government outpost that provides training in the three R's. It is a community center for a neighborhood, it is where families get together for all kinds of things from science fairs to soccer games and Christmas concerts. The school is where the children of a neighborhood spend their days together, learning to interact, and it is the most salient center for the adults of the area to meet one another and interact, as well.

It is reasonable to expect a school to post flyers about sports, science, and artistic events that affect the students and the community, and it is also reasonable to expect the school to excercise some discretion over what will and will not be sent home with children. There is a rather complicated Constitutional issue with religious materials, but no legal requirement to send home material from homophobic or racist groups.

David S. Fishback, advocacy chair for the Metro D.C. Chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, was the only community member to speak about the issue at Monday’s board meeting. The organization regularly distributes fliers to high school students in the county, but will no longer be allowed to.

Is that correct? PFOX sends home flyers almost every quarter, as I understand it, and PFLAG has sent them home a couple of times, to counteract the impact of the other group.

This article appears to conflate the two groups. I know from talking to people in the community that it is hard to distinguish between the anti-gay group and the group that supports families of gays and lesbians, especially since PFOX picked a name intentionally similar to PFLAG's. PFLAG's message is supportive and is consistent with MCPS curriculum and policy.

This ruling affects middle schools and high schools only.

 Under law, the school system is not able to pick which nonprofit’s fliers it sends home, so the system must allow all or none. Some board members said they are concerned the change might result in a distribution shift of what some see as offensive fliers to the elementary school level.

No, the school system can pick and choose. It cannot discriminate against a religion, for instance by banning flyers for a Sunday school or Bible camp, but the district's lawyers came up with the "we can't choose" solution as a way to avoid litigation. The lesson to students is that when you are forced with a difficult decision that may have consequences, you should declare yourself not-responsible and get out of the situation as cleanly as possible.