I see that my highschool is still being draconian with its ideas on free speech. I suppose their policy is to do as they say, but not as they do. For me, there is a deeper story than what is currently taking place with this “Bible Club”.
One of the rights of passage at Downingtown High School in the years leading up to my graduation was experiencing spirit week. I’m sure that most schools have these weeks, where for some reason the student body is encouraged to show its pride in the school by participating in various strange school-hour activities, usually culminating in the homecoming parade, dance, bonfire, football game, etc.
Some of the activities included “Blue and Gold Day”, where you wear your school colors on your clothes or in body paint. There were also odd ones like “Pajama Day”. These days were voted on by student council and approved by the “spirit commissioner” and faculty.
My senior year included an day-long spirit event called “Rent an Underclassman Day”. The premise is basically this: You buy a ticket from the student council that has a blank for your name and that of an underclassman. With both names filled out and signed, the ticket is returned to student council, and you become registered. On Rent an Underclassman Day, the underclassman (who has agreed to all of this) can be ordered to perform some services for you, like carrying your books to class (which is a big deal in the quarter-mile long hallways of my high school, where you locker is at one end and your books weigh 80 lbs.) wearing humiliating costumes, all in the name of fun and, of course, school spirit.
In the years when my mom was in school, this day was not called “Rent an Underclassman Day”. In fact, only a year or two prior to my graduation, it was still known by the name that my mom called it in her day, “Slave Day”.
Sadly for everyone involved, I was an altruistic teenager, and also editor of my school newspaper.