Posted on: Monday, April 28, 2003

EDITORIAL
Limit proselytizers to 'Speaker's Corner'

The state Department of Education and the American Civil Liberties Union support the First Amendment right of students with the Jesus Hawai'i Project to pass out videos, CDs and Bibles on public school campuses as part of a Christian youth evangelism effort.

Sure, the campaign is constitutional, but that shouldn't be the only campus threshold standing between students and hawkers of religious and political causes.

If it is, then any group should be able to get in on the action. And that includes religious organizations of all stripes, gay rights groups and who knows what else?

Of course, if students don't like what's being distributed, they can trash it. But there are those who are too polite or intimidated to say "no" to their classmates. They're a captive audience, and school officials ought to be sensitive to that.

To make such campaigns less intrusive, public schools could follow the example of some university campuses and airports, where solicitors of religious, political and commercial agendas are restricted to a certain area. A Speaker's Corner, so to speak. That way, First Amendment rights are protected while uncomfortable students won't have to worry about being harassed while they're in recess or on lunch break.