CAMDEN - The Egg Harbor Township Board of Education did not violate the religious and free-speech rights of a student who was not allowed to give out "proselytizing pencils" and "evangelical candy canes" during class parties, a federal judge in Camden has ruled. Daniel Walz, now 9, sued the board, with the help of his mother, Dana Walz, over three incidents at school.
In the first, Daniel, then 4, had to take back pencils that he had given to his prekindergarten classmates and that his mother had bought for the religious message written on them. The other two incidents, when Daniel was in kindergarten and first grade, involved candy canes to which his mother had attached a story that purported to give the evangelical origins of the holiday candy.
The school told Daniel's mother that he could not distribute the candy at school holiday parties, as she had requested, but that he could do so before or after school or at recess.
In his opinion, filed Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Simandle called Dana Walz "the driving force behind the distribution of these items and this lawsuit." He deemed the school's restrictions reasonable.