Animal rights activists are free to communicate their message to junior high students, but picketing on a sidewalk adjacent to a school in Taylorsville "interfered with the peaceful conduct of school activities," a federal judge has ruled.
Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, protested near Eisenhower Junior High School in 1999, saying the school promoted the world's largest buyer of beef when it flew a McDonald's flag outside the building.
School administrators and Granite district police stopped the demonstrations, saying they violated a Utah law passed in 1973.
PETA filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing the law was unconstitutional. Last year U.S. District Judge Dee Benson disagreed and granted the school district a partial victory.
Benson sided with the school district again Monday, saying it had not even "applied" the statute unconstitutionally, as PETA had claimed.
"The statute protects schools, school activities, students and faculty from interference and disruption," Benson wrote in his order granting summary judgment to the district. "Persons whose presence or acts interfere with the peaceful conduct of school activities may be asked to leave, regardless of the content of their speech."
There was ample evidence, Benson said, that the children were distracted during the days PETA demonstrated, anticipating the protesters' arrival and becoming involved with the commotion outside.
School officials said students were staying late after school, missing rides and buses, and fighting with each other.
But PETA's attorney, Brian Barnard, said his clients specifically picketed off school property and at the end of the school day, "so as not to disrupt anything."
"Their audience is students, parents, staff faculty and the administration," Barnard told the Deseret News. "And the only time you can approach all those folks — and not be disruptive — is either at the beginning or the end of school."
"The judge is saying that the statue allows the police to chase people away, even in anticipation of a disruption," he said. "If that were accurate . . . then you could ban most anybody. You could even ban the (Utah Education Association) from picketing outside the school because they might cause a disruption."
Benson wrote that PETA is still free to express its message in other ways that "do not disrupt the educational process occurring within the walls of Eisenhower."
The protesters could picket at another time, another place, or contact their audience through letters, newspaper articles, phone calls or membership drives.
Barnard, who said his clients will appeal Benson's ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, said those were not viable alternatives.
"For the judge to suggest, come back on a Saturday, when your audience isn't here, or picket at a different place where the audience isn't going to be, these are not alternative channels of communication," he said. "The nature of this group and their message are so closely intertwined, that as soon as you ban the group, you are banning the message."
E-MAIL: mtitze@desnews.com