Law Forces Schools to Offer ‘Equal Access’ to All Groups

Most Orange County school districts have adopted “equal access” policies to prevent discrimination on the basis of religious, political or philosophical differences. Under the federal Equal Access Act, it is illegal for a public secondary school to bar one group of students from meeting on campus during non-instructional time if the district has already allowed other organizations to do so.

According to the law, whenever one student group is allowed to meet, there is a “limited open forum” that entitles other groups to the same privilege. The act withstood a legal challenge in 1990, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a public secondary school that allowed chess, scuba and service clubs to meet could not ban religious clubs.

Four of Orange County’s 27 school districts have not passed “equal access” policies. Consequently, no student groups are allowed to meet on campus for other than school-related reasons in the Saddleback, Irvine, Tustin and Capistrano unified districts.