Schools limit The Boy Scouts' Learning for Life program at Hawaii public schools cannot encourage or require students to memorize or say the Scouts' oath because it includes the promise of duty to God, the state Department of Education has decided.
Boy Scout program
The organization's oath citing
duty to God leads to
the DOE restrictionsBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.comNor can the Boy Scouts of America Aloha Council's program recruit members during the school day.
Those are among the restrictions the council faces after two groups -- Scouting for All and Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church -- filed a complaint in December with the department.
The restrictions were spelled out in a letter that state schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto sent to school administrators last month.
The two groups said the program should be banned from public schools because of the Scouts' national policy barring homosexuals from serving as adult leaders and the reference to God in its oath, which the groups said discriminates against atheists, agnostics and others.
The department's restrictions, agreed to by the council, do not ban the program, but make various facets of the program voluntary and restrict others.
"While we cannot agree with your request that the program be prohibited in the public schools because of the (Boy Scouts') religious values, we do feel that there are aspects of the program that are unacceptable," Hamamoto wrote in a letter to Mitchell Kahle, president of Hawaii Citizens for the Separation of State and Church.
She said Boy Scouts, a nonprofit organization, is entitled to First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of religion.
But, she added, the department emphasized that during the school day, Scouts' activities must comply with laws, Board of Education policies and DOE regulations, "particularly in regard to discrimination and separation of church and state."
Among the changes are making the program voluntary, giving parents the ability to opt out for their children; and barring the oath from being printed, circulated or used as part of the program. Moreover, a survey that asks high school students about their career interests will also be voluntary and require no personal identifiable information other than name and address.
"This is not 100 percent what we wanted ... but it's a step in the right direction," said Michael Golojuch, a member of both groups that filed the complaint.
Tim Thomton, the Aloha Council's director of field service, said many of the activities restricted have always been voluntary. "It formalizes some things that have been optional prior," he said.
As for the ban on recruiting, Thomton said the council will halt recruitment talks to students but will continue to put fliers on campuses.
Learning for Life has been running in schools here for 25 years, Thomton said. It teaches character building and offers day or overnight camps to elementary students and career education for high school students, he said. This year, the program ran in 50 schools, he said.
State Department of Education