The school board of Broward County convened on Tuesday, Dec. 10 for a workshop in which school signage was briefly addressed. The Broward County school board is scheduled to rule on Tuesday what signs are permissible on school campuses following challenges from a contentious advocate who requested to hang ‘Satan Loves the First Amendment’ banners on school grounds. Timothy “Chaz” Stevens filed a lawsuit earlier this year against the school district after local schools denied his request to hang the provocative banners, but allowed signs from Christian churches. “They gotta let me in or they gotta remove everybody,” Stevens, who in the lawsuit calls himself as the leader of the ‘Church of Satanology,’ told WLRN. Until recently, school board policy didn’t prohibit religious organizations from displaying signage in schools, but it stated they must represent community standards, uphold the board’s philosophy, and “be non-political or sectarian in nature.” Stevens sued the district in September, arguing it engaged in viewpoint discrimination by letting Christian church banners hang but not his “Satan Loves the First Amendment” sign. The lawsuit climbed to federal court a month later. District administrators ordered religious signs to come down while they reviewed the rules. Kevin Goldberg, […]

By : Markus McDowell