For years, Manhattan High School Student Council has had the ability to vote in new clubs and interest groups; that ability, as of StuCo’s Nov. 12 meeting, now lies only with administration.
“I believe StuCo’s job is to represent the student body, and if our only say in this situation was whether we thought the club would make the student body a better place and the school a safer and happier place for everyone, the goal is kind of lost [when you take] that power away from us,” Madison Cunningham, sophomore StuCo representative, said.
In the past, students would meet with the activities director to talk about the club or interest group they were wanting to form.
“I would tell them about whether or not that club was already kind of formed, and give them an opportunity to go check that out before,” Lisa Julian, activities director, said. “And then I would give them the walk-through [on] how to do the paperwork to form an interest group.”
In that previous process, the next step was for StuCo to vote on whether or not to classify it. However, there is a legal reason for making the change to this system.
“That process actually goes against the Equal Access Act,” Julian said.
The Equal Access Act was passed in 1984 and forbids public schools from receiving federal funds if they deny students the First Amendment right to conduct meetings because of the “religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings,” according to Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
“If we allow any club to meet, any non-curricular club to meet on school campus outside of the school day, then we have to allow all clubs to meet, non curricular clubs to meet on campus outside of the school day,” Julian said. “By having Student Council vote on whether or not those clubs could form, or interest groups could form just based on what their mission was, could be viewed as discriminatory.”
After reflection on how the problem can be fixed, the Student Council will now be who clubs must consult with to find out if groups meet classification requirements of being a club.
“We had to really reflect on what our practice was and how that put into play could potentially lead to discriminatory action,” Julian said. “Therefore, we just kind of reversed that process, and now when students are interested in forming an interest group, we’re going to ask them to talk with Student Council about whether or not that is already in existence in the past.”
A certain interest group’s journey for status at Manhattan High School recently contributed to putting the Equal Access Act into focus.
“They were trying to be called Turning Point USA as an extension of the national group, and they had to meet with StuCo several times to try and become an interest group, because originally there was confusion behind what their club was about and who they were trying to be for the school. Originally, there was a lot of political bias in their initial vote,” Cunningham said. “That’s the recent example that I believe also sparked this.”
After delving further into whether MHS was following the law, the decision was finalized.
“I’ve heard Oprah said it, I’m sure other people have said it, but ‘when you know better, you do better. So we know better, and we’re going to try to do better,’” Julian said.
