Soliciting suggestions here.

[rug]

My daughter was handed a flyer as she was leaving Middle School this afternoon.

It was a invitation to go the the "Wyldlife Club" tonight.

The Wyldlife Club is sponsored by Young Life. http://www.younglife.org/us

This is who they are:

"Dear Friend:

Welcome to the Young Life Foundation website! I hope you’ll find everything you’re looking for regarding this important facet of our work. Please take time to fully peruse it and enjoy.

The Young Life Foundation exists solely to help raise financial support for this mission. The Foundation is led by quality men and women who are committed to both responsible financial oversight as well as our single-minded mission to reach kids for Jesus Christ. You won’t find a better team. Please feel free to contact them at any time with your questions or with suggestions on how we can improve our service.

There's a wealth of information at your fingertips with this website — from insight into how other donors and Young Life areas are using the Foundation to instructions for creating a foundation fund to steps for leveraging complex planning transactions.

We are grateful for your partnership and hope this site will serve you well as you explore your interest in the Foundation.

Thanks for stopping by! And thanks for everything you do to help us reach kids for Jesus Christ.

In Christ,"

Signed by Denny Rydberg.

http://www.younglife.org/Foundation/WordFromDenny.htm

I have a call into the School District now (the Middle School Principal punted.

I have some thoughts. What are yours?

[virgogal]

1. Was this handed out on school Property or just outside school property? Just

curious.

As far as the info goes,just tell your daughter to toss it.

[rug]

4. I told her to give it to me to keep.

Yup, right outside the school door between the students and the buses.

[virgogal]

9. Wow! I can't believe solicitations of any type are allowed on school property.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Please clarify what you mean by "as she was leaving Middle School"...

was it on school property ? And who handed her the flyer - a school official or another student ?

[rug]

6. On school property by another student.

The Middle School principal said it was approved by the Superintendent.

[mercuryblues]

3. Send her

to the Wyldlife Club with fliers for Planned Parenthood to hand out.

[rug]

5. I can't. I'm Catholic.

[cbayer]

7. Was it being handed out by fellow students or by outsiders?

Is her school parochial?

[rug]

10. Public school, by a student.

[cbayer]

12. If they are allowing this, then they would have to allow other groups

to hand out flyers.

It's a slippery slope and I, as a parent, would object vigorously.

[rug]

13. I am. I can't wait to hear their rationale.

[skepticscott]

40. Yes, next thing you know

American Atheists will be swarming over our public schools, handing out flyers to grade schoolers telling them that there's no god and no Santa Claus and no Easter Bunny. As we've all been told many times on this board, those "militant" atheists are every bit as bad as the militant religious fundamentalists.

[bluedigger]

8. It's proselytizing, clear and simple.

"The Young Life Foundation exists solely to help raise financial support for this mission. The Foundation is led by quality men and women who are committed to both responsible financial oversight as well as our single-minded mission to reach kids for Jesus Christ."

It's inappropriate in a public school.

[rug]

11. I agree. It's pretty blatant.

I know the School Solicitor but I'm waiting to hear from the District. I don't want to go all FFRF on them. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

[Vincardog]

14. Anyone can hand out fliers. If they advocate illegal acts they can be stopped. Your daughter

has the right to throw it in the trash. It is not the school handing them out. What is the problem?

[cbayer]

15. What is a white supremacist group want to hand out flyers?

[Vincardog]

21. Are they advocation anything illegal?

[cbayer]

31. Nope, just pushing their own bigotry and encouraging others to join.

[Vincardog]

32. In that case, if the school has no policy on it, they can pass their stuff out and Your child

has the right to throw it away. IMO

[rug]

16. Because the school mission is not "to reach kids for Jesus Christ."

[Vincardog]

22. Part of the school's mission is to socialize children. I said if a student was handing them out

they had that right. It is not the school doing the deed.

[rug]

23. Kids have been suspended there for handing out unathorized flyers.

It looks like this one was specifically approved by the Superintendent, That implicates the school.

[Vincardog]

24. This is new information isn't it?

[rug]

28. About the Supeeintendent? i mentioned it upthread.

About suspensions? No I hadn't mentioned that. IIRC, they were nonreligious.

[Vincardog]

30. That is the nut of it. If other students had been suspended for handing out fliers about

legal activities, this student should not be allowed to hand out fliers.
My comment was that it is ok for students to advocate for causes as long as they were legal.
Your daughter has a right to throw their handout in the trash.
If the school has a policy that no one can handout anything on school grounds then no one should be allowed.
Ask the super to provide you their policy in writing along with the entire history of its' enforcement including any times it was not enforced.

[rug]

34. Good suggestion.

I'll see what happens Monday.

[Goblinmonger]

27. The school is still responsible.

It's their pulpit, so to speak. So if kids hand out a "come to the rave and get wasted on X" handouts, nobody would think the school needs to be more involved?

[Vincardog]

41. "come to the rave and get wasted on X" sounds like it might just illegal. Get my point?

[dmallind]

17. Grey area

If it's another student doing this rather than an authority figure, and the school would be ok with students handing out flyers for events sponsored by other beliefs and none, then it may be ok. But I personally would be skeptical they would treat invitations to an atheist or Muslim event with equal access, and tempted to test that if they claimed the school was merely allowing normal student participation not playing favorites.

My owen stepdaughter went to these things a time or two. She quickly tired of them, but it was done without overt Jesus language (which to my mind is actually more problematic - inviting kids to fun social events and then only springing the Jesus Camp on them after they show up).

[rug]

18. Hmmm.

They haven't called back yet. I guess it'll wait until Monday. Hopefully I'll get the full story to see if the gre turns out to be black or white.

[Goblinmonger]

19. Part of me wants to be glib

and tell you to suck it up like so many tell atheists to do about the religion stuff coming from the government that we complain about.

But I would contact the Super and ask what the policy is that allows this to happen. Ask for records of what other requests they have had and an indication if those requests were granted and denied. Most don't usually follow the open forum like they should.

[rug]

20. Glibness aside, that's a good suggestion.

Do they hand out stuff like this at your school?

[Goblinmonger]

26. No.

Though we are an open forum. I guess, not that I know of. We have a bible club here at the high school that meets and posts stuff. But I haven't seen any of these type handouts.

I would just find out the policy and let them know your displeasure and see what you get. If they blow you off, I would be tempted to contact a liberal, progressive organization that would piss them off and have them get someone to hand out fliers for their things. That usually shuts down the open forum pretty quickly.

[Bonhomme Richard]

25. Many moons ago we were raising our son without religion.

We are both Catholics but were "falling". We didn't want him to have any preconceived notions. Anyway, the people next door were born agains who had a son our sons age and asked if he could go to Agwana with them. That freaked us out because born agains freak us out. We said no because I didn't want any brainwashing and we then told our son he was Catholic and sent him to CCD. We felt that it was better to have some background so he wasn't easy prey and then he could decide when he got older. Of course at that time Catholics, at least where I was, didn't take themselves so seriously.
That son is 36 now...LOL.

[rug]

29. Lol, that's one way to do it.

[Jim__]

33. Do you know other parents in the class/school?

Even if the group has a legal right, if enough parents are upset and complain directly to the group, they may decide that their tactics are counter-productive.

[rug]

35. Yes I do. There was some crap going on there the end of last school year,

About 30 parents went to three Board meetings in a row to complain. Time to make some phone calls.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

36. I faced a similar situation

One of the classroom "moms" (I think a PTA volunteer) was passing out "Jesus is the reason for the season" fliers at Christmas time to all the students. The fliers invited the students to visit the church, and had some information about "being saved". My kid brought the flier home, laughing about it (even at 10, he was a pretty good at recognizing nutcases).

The principal seemed offended when I called asking about the flier. The woman had received permission from him to pass out the fliers, and didn't like the fact that I was questioning his decision. I didn't take it any further than the principal, though, because there's very little tolerance for atheists (or anyone even a little "different&quot around here, and it's not a battle I wanted to fight.

I don't know what to tell you other than to watch what you do because you never know what's going to come back on your daughter. If you can squelch the activity without making a lot of noise, you should go that direction.

[rug]

37. She'll be fine.

She hasn't said the Pledge of Allegiance in class (for nonreligious reasons) since 4th grade and handled the peer pressure and teachers well. I've dealt with the Superintendent and HS pricipal in the past regarding her brothers over problems with the school not following the opt-out provisions in NCLB and military recruiters.

What irks me about this flyer is that it's not overtly religious. That part comes only after you're there.

The funny part is she wanted to go. She thought it was a Friday night teen hang out until I told her who runs it. She hates going to Mass as it is. After she found out she went to put it in the trash but I took it from her. I want to dig into this a little more.

She's eating a vegetarian hot dog now and plaing Penguin Diner on the computer. A real firebrand.

[skepticscott]

38. You should just thank god

that it wasn't those militant, proselytizing atheists handing out flyers. I hear they're even worse.

[MineralMan]

39. One of my primary reasons for disliking this kind of activity at schools

is that it bypasses the parents. Parents should be the primary directors of their children's religious education, not religious groups. By passing out these flyers, those students are attempting to get kids to participate in one particular religion-oriented activity - one which may be at odds with what the parents wish to have their children learn.

I think it's good that you're following up on this and asking the school to explain itself.