Dallas, USA - Plano school trustees voted Monday to give Bible study groups nearly identical rights and privileges as other clubs.
The policy changes probably will end a legal battle with a local religious rights law firm.
The district is seeking settlement of the related federal case with Liberty Legal Institute, which is representing the school group – Students Witnessing Absolute Truth.
A lawsuit filed last month alleged religious discrimination when information about "SWAT" was removed from a middle school Web site.
The school board vote led to a rare moment of agreement between the parties.
"This looks pretty good," Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Legal, said while reading the policy changes. "We should be able to get everything resolved."
He said he would discuss the offer with his clients this week.
Plano school board President Duncan Webb said he hoped the offer would put an end to the case.
"I hope Liberty Legal looks at what we've offered and accepts it so we can move on," he said.
Mr. Sasser said he was satisfied that the changes address a recommendation from U.S. Magistrate Judge Don D. Bush late last week: that the district should offer the same benefits to Students Witnessing Absolute Truth as it offers all noncurricular clubs.
Mr. Sasser considered the recommendation a victory for the law firm, which has sued or threatened to sue several area school districts over religious rights issues in recent years.
After Liberty Legal filed the SWAT lawsuit, the district put the club's information back on the Haggard Middle School Web site. But Liberty Legal attorneys argued in court last week that the club did not have a school sponsor like all other clubs and missed out on related benefits, such as access to a school bank account.
The school's principal had testified that SWAT was the only noncurriculum-related group at the school, which is why it was treated differently. Judge Bush disagreed about the principal's narrow definition and stated in the recommendation that all noncurricular groups should have the same rights.
"The issue in this case is not one of sponsorship or the lack thereof, but of the flagrant denial for equal access guaranteed to SWAT," read the report from Judge Bush.
School attorneys had argued in court that because schools are prohibited from promoting religion, staff members are prohibited from sponsoring religious groups and can serve essentially only as chaperones.
The latest policy changes give all noncurriculum groups equal access to bulletin boards, fundraising activities, student activity accounts and other privileges. All groups, whether related to curriculum or not, are entitled to a faculty sponsor, according to the new policy, but school staffers can only attend religious meetings "in a nonparticipatory capacity."
School attorney Richard Abernathy said policy changes would have little effect on the way student groups operate.
"I don't think hardly anything will change," he said.
The district filed the formal settlement offer in court Monday. It includes $100 in damages to the plaintiffs – SWAT and its founder, 13-year-old student Michael Shell. It would also pay attorney fees for the plaintiffs determined in a future hearing but admits no wrongdoing on the part of the district.
But resolution of this case would not be the end of the district's legal entanglements with Liberty Legal.
Both parties have been involved in a separate, pending religion-related lawsuit in federal court since December 2004. That case, which also involved the Shell family, alleges a pattern of district violations of religious and First Amendment rights. It stems from a school party in 2003 at which a student was not allowed to hand out candy cane pens bearing religious messages.