Texas School Board Offers To Settle Suit With Bible Club

The Plano, Texas school board has offered to settle a lawsuit filed against it by Liberty Legal Institute challenging the school's refusal to allow a student bible group to place its information on the Haggard Middle School website along with information from other student groups. (See prior posting.) When the suit was filed, the school agreed to give the students website access, but Liberty Legal also objected to the failure to give the group a faculty sponsor. Under the settlement proposal, as reported by the Dallas Morning News, all noncurricular groups will get equal access to bulletin boards, fundraising activities, student activity accounts and other privileges, and will be entitled to have a faculty sponsor. However, school staff will only be able to attend religious meetings "in a nonparticipatory capacity". The settlement offer came after a federal judge granted the student group, Students Witnessing Absolute Truth, a preliminary injunction. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram.)