In April the Kennewick school board voted to allow GSAs. That was a big step forward. Today comes news of a huge step back. Federal law requires schools to treat all non-curricular student clubs equally. The Kennewick school board opted yesterday to place new restrictions on all non-curricular student clubs—restrictions that will potentially kill 'em all—in an effort to keep GSA flyers off bulletin boards and photos of GSAs out of yearbooks.

After discussing how much access gay-straight alliances ought to have in Kennewick schools for nearly a year, the school board Wednesday unanimously approved a new policy. It created more limits for all noncurricular student clubs. One teacher at the board meeting feared the new rule would make community service clubs such as the Key Club inoperative....

Key Club members raise money for charity and volunteer in the community. But now they no longer have access to ASB accounts, which will make fundraising much harder, Dron said. The students' efforts will no longer be publicized in the student paper or the yearbook. This will mean fewer kids will sign up for the club, he said. And teachers will no longer be paid to be advisers—in fact, they can't advise the students anymore. The new policy only provides for liaisons, who monitor that students don't break school rules. But they can't direct students' efforts. Dron said he wouldn't volunteer his time if he couldn't actively coordinate the students' work. "This (policy) will make the Key Club dysfunctional," he said. "Kids lose a way to learn to be responsible."

The activities of Christian student orgs are also being restricted. Nice work, bigots. School board members' email addresses can be found here.