Bible clubs may meet during activity periods, says court.

A federal appeals court ruled in July that a Pennsylvania high school improperly barred a student Bible club from meeting during an activity period before the start of classes.

Early last year, a senior at Punxsutawney Area High School sued school officials for prohibiting her Bible study group, FISH, from meeting during an in-school "activity period" from 8:15 to 8:45 a.m. Senior Melissa Donovan and her parents argued that the school had run afoul of the federal Equal Access Act and violated her First Amendment rights. In October 2002, a U.S. district judge ruled against Donovan. The family appealed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that decision.

A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit on July 15 reversed the district judge's ruling. The 3rd Circuit concluded in Donovan v. Punxsutawney Area School Board that school officials had violated the Equal Access Act and the free speech rights of Donovan and her group.

The Equal Access Act of 1984 made it unlawful for public secondary schools that have an open forum to deny equal access to student groups based on religion. According to the law, a "limited open forum" is created whenever public schools allow one or more noncurriculum-related student groups to meet on school grounds before or after classes end.

Attorneys for the high school argued that allowing the group to meet during the school day would amount to a constitutionally improper endorsement of religion.

The 3rd Circuit, in a unanimous 26-page opinion, found that the Punxsutawney high school's activity period represented "noninstructional time" where other student groups, such as a ski club and an anti-drug group held meetings.

"Simply because the period may fall within the more general parameters of the school day does not indicate that all time within those parameters necessarily constitutes actual classroom instruction," wrote Judge Ruggero John Aldisert for the 3rd Circuit.