The Iowa Civil Liberties Union is backing a lawsuit filed by three Davenport students seeking the right to distribute religious materials at their school. District officials told the kids they couldn’t pass out religious literature in the hallways. I-C-L-U executive director Ben Stone says that’s ridiculous.Stone says school officials are infringing on the students’ religious and First Amendment rights to distribute the literature outside the classroom.Stone says Iowa school officials need to ensure that their concern for unconstitutional establishment of religion does not infringe on individual students’ religious practices. The I-C-L-U recently threatened a lawsuit against the Woodbine School District to prevent the performance of “The Lord’s Prayer” at the school’s graduation. Stone says that case involved the government endorsing a religious belief.Stone says the Davenport case is an example of “poorly-informed school officials acting out of ignorance.”
