The Senate approved a compromise to the student-clubs bill Friday that would require parental consent for students to join non-curricular clubs and allow schools to deny a club application if leaders thought it necessary to "protect the physical, emotional and moral well-being of students."
Under the new version of HB236, any club would need a faculty sponsor, and if the club could not find one, the club could not form. That was a change from the Senate's version of the bill, which would have required the school to find the clubs faculty sponsors.
The clubs would need to file their applications "in a reasonable amount of time," instead of by an Oct. 15 deadline listed in the Senate bill.
Moreover, students would not be required to submit bylaws and a constitution as in the original measure.
"The bill is better than it was, though certainly not perfect in my view," said Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake.
The controversial measure has covered quite a bit of ground this session and undergone seven proposed substitutes. It was gutted by the House, then restored by the Senate. The sticking point has been whether to allow creation of gay/straight clubs in schools.
That Senate bill was initially accepted by the House but later sent back to the Senate with a request that senators recede from their amendments. When they did not recede, the bill went to conference committee Thursday, and the compromise bill was later approved in the Senate.
The bill will be up for approval in the House next week.