Now you can have a Hare Krsna Club at your school!
IF THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE at your school allow other clubs, off the subjects taught in the regular classes, they have to allow your Hare Krsna club too. That's the effect of a 1990 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
They can't say "No religion" or "No Hare Krsna."
The same standards that apply to the photography club or the hiking club should also apply to your Hare Krsna club.
Does your school have clubs unrelated to the curriculum? Does your school (like most) get a share of federal funds?
Then the same rights the Supreme Court guaranteed to Bridget Mergens are also guaranteed to you.
Bridget Mergens was an Omaha high school student who wished to organize a student Christian club that would meet at school after hours. The purpose of the club was "to permit the students to read and discuss the Bible, to have fellowship, and to pray together."
But Bridget's was a public school receiving federal funds, so the school authorities reasoned that allowing the club would breach the constitutional "wall of separation" between Church and State. So they turned down her request.
Bridget replied that the school's decision deprived her of "equal access" to club activities because of what the club would be about. The school allowed other clubs not related to the curriculum, such as chess and scuba-diving clubs. So Bridget argued that she was entitled to organize a club for Christian activities.
By denying her request, Bridget said, the school was violating her constitutional rights to freedom of speech and association and the free exercise of religion.
Bridget's complaint, initiated in a principal's office, slowly made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
And finally Bridget won.
Federal law, ruled the court, requires that schools grant all students equal access to what the school offers, even when students wish to form a club with a spiritual or religious content.
This rule applies when your school allows clubs that are unrelated to the curriculum. For example, if your school has a chess club and chess is not a part of the school's official courses, the club is unrelated. (A math club or French club, on the other hand, would be related to the regular classes in math or French.)
If your school has even one club unrelated to the curriculum, the court's ruling applies. Your Hare Krsna club should be allowed.
And if other clubs have access to the school newspaper, bulletin boards, public address system, and club fairs, so should your Hare Krsna club.
Your club, of course, like all school clubs, should be organized and led by students themselves. And it should meet, like other clubs, during time not used for regular classes.
So now it's up to you. If you'd like to have a club, just start one. Find out the rules for student clubs at your school and start your own club for Krsna consciousness.
When you do start a club, let us know about it here at BTG. We'll be interested to hear of your suc-cess. And if the people in charge at your school try to turn you down, let us know about that too. Maybe we can help.
The Supreme Court case, by the way, is known as Board of Education v.Mergens, 110 Supreme Court 2356 (1990).