In a recent decision in the Northern District of Illinois, a trial court granted summary judgment in favor of a school district in a lawsuit stemming from the arrest of a local resident who was leafleting and proselytizing about Christianity on the sidewalk in front of a high school. The case reminds school districts of their rights to prohibit expressive activity by community members near school grounds, but also contains important warnings that such prohibitions not go too far.
Duehning v. Aurora East Unified School involved a lawsuit by Josiah Duehning, a local resident of Aurora, Illinois, who often travels to high schools and colleges in the area to hand out pamphlets and engage students in conversations about Christianity. Duehning was a frequent presence on the sidewalk in front of East Aurora High School, and though he had been told in the past to cross the street, he regularly ignored those warnings to no consequence. On August 28, 2014, however, when Duehning ignored the direction of an East Aurora High School Dean of Students to leave the sidewalk in front of the school, and instead moved off the sidewalk onto school property to talk to a group of students, the Dean called the school’s police liaison officer. The officer required Duehning to identify himself, directed him again to leave the sidewalk in front of the school, and when Deuhning refused, physically restrained him, warning “I WILL take you down.” Duehning was subsequently arrested and...
