Scouts sue for equal school access

Boy Scouts of America has filed suit against the Broward County, Fla., School Board after it voted to evict 57 Boy Scout and Cub Scout packs from school grounds by Dec. 17.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Miami on Monday. The BSA contends the school discriminated against it by limiting the groups' freedom of speech and right to assembly under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Also, the lawsuit alleges the anti-discrimination policy does not apply to other groups using school grounds, such as the Brownies and church groups.

In its decision to evict the Cub Scouts (first through fifth grade) and Boy Scouts (sixth grade and up), the Broward County board said the BSA's policy against admitting homosexual scouts or adult leaders violated the school's policies against discriminatory practices based on sex, race, religion or "sexual orientation."

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the BSA, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, had a right to free association and the right to set its own policies and practices as a private organization under U.S. law. The justices also upheld the Scouts' demand that its members and officers be "morally straight," as the Scout oath says.

Since the high court's ruling, several groups and financial supporters around the country have taken punitive measures against the 90-year-old scouting organization by withholding further funding and support. Some homosexual activist groups have openly chastised the BSA over its policy.

However, pro-family groups have continually applauded the BSA's position and the Supreme Court's June ruling as well, saying both entities are holding children to higher traditional moral standards.

"The Broward County School Board's decision to kick the Scouts off school property under the guise of opposing discrimination is deplorable and hypocritical," said Jan LaRue, senior director of legal studies for the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.-based traditional-values advocacy group.

"Its non-discrimination policy denies the Scouts equal access to public facilities," LaRue said in a statement Friday. "It denies them the basic freedom of association that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld. It seems there is no 'equal access' for the Scouts in Broward County."

The BSA, which currently involves about 5 million youths and 1.2 million adults, was incorporated Feb. 8, 1910, and chartered as an organization by Congress in 1916.

"The Scouts deserve to be praised for their great work," said FRC's director of cultural studies, Robert Knight. "Instead, the Broward County School Board is dragging them through the mud of 'gay' political activism."

"We believe an avowed homosexual is not a role model for the values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law," according to the BSA. "Boy Scouting makes no effort to discover the sexual orientation of any person. Scouting's message is compromised when prospective leaders present themselves as role models inconsistent with Boy Scouting's understanding of the Scout Oath and Law."

BSA officials also pointed out that the organization is "very inclusive," noting that Scouts from all walks of life and in all areas of the country were members.

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