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                       913   INTERACTIONS WITH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

1. Purpose

The presence of elected officials or representatives of religious organizations in our schools is encouraged as a means of educating students as to civic responsibility and participation in the affairs of the community around them.

2. Guidelines
SC 775
Pol.216. 707

The expectation of the Board of School Directors as to the presence of religious groups or individuals representing them is that their presentations and the discussions that surround issues will have a specific relationship to the academic curriculum of the school system and that they will be free of doctrinal content and the proselytizing of any specific point of view.

Representatives of political groups or political figures will be welcome in the schools as resource persons, and they shall limit their discussions and expressed points of view to academic topics which have an identifiable relationship to the adopted curriculum of the School District.  The creation of an atmosphere of political partisanship or of political campaigning in the schools and facilities during instructional hours for national, state or local office shall not be permitted.

Delegation of Responsibility

School principals shall not invite any political candidates to visit or speak at a school within a ninety (90) day period prior to the date of an election.

The principal must approve, in advance, any guests invited to participate in the school program or any materials to be distributed or displayed within the school.  Approval or disapproval shall be granted within a reasonable time after the request and within a reasonable time after submission of the proposed materials or outline detailing the guest’s proposed participation in the school program.

Approval will note be granted for materials or guests that convey or plan to convey a message that:

1.  fosters disruptiveness among the students so as to interfere with the learning environment;

2.  threatens immediate harm to the welfare of the school community or any individuals;

3.  discriminates against any individual or interferes with any individual’s rights;

4.  encourages unlawful activity;

5.  violates the separation of church and state; or

6.  harms or is prejudicial to students, such as messages which are libelous and/or
     obscene as defined by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the
     United States.

In addition, the principal shall set forth the time and place of the distribution of materials or a guest’s participation in the school program so that said distribution or participation will not:

1.  interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.

2. disrupt the normal flow of traffic within the school, at exterior doors, and on school grounds.