Marc, I don't recall a hypo involving "Go To Hell."
I think if a school wants to be sure that it is not liable for violating the
free speech rights of any group
that is part of a public forum, it should avoid viewpoint based
restrictions on speech. Any attempt to forbid "Jesus is the only way"
slogans, while allowing "Jesus is love," or "stop homophobia" slogans,
risks being considered viewpoint discrimination in a public (or even a
nonpublic) forum for student/parent groups.
What is more, it is very possibly a violation of the EC for a govt school to
endorse a position of disapproval for private expression of a central idea of a
private religious group (not to mention the denominational discrimination that
results when "Jesus
is love" is permitted, but "Jesus is salvation" is not permitted).
Finally, it is not enough to assert that a message like "Jesus is the only way"
is disruptive.
I
think the school would need to prove that there is a substantial risk
of serious disruption of school activities, and the fact that a few
families find the message offensive is not sufficient to justify taking
the case out of Tinker and Good News protection.
If
a few parents complain about the GLBT rainbow posters mentioned earlier
in this thread, may a school ban the rainbow as disruptive, while
permitting other student groups to display their slogans and symbols?
Cheers, Rick Duncan
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