Re: The day the music died: SAD 75 imposes radio silence on buses

["Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Smyth, Sean" <ssmyth@suscom.net>
To: "Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: The day the music died: SAD 75 imposes radio silence on buses


> Is this legal?

Sure.  The school district owns the buses and the drivers are district
employees.  As a result, the district is within its rights to adopt policies
regarding the use of radios on school buses.  I do not think anyone could
force the district to adopt such a policy, though a bus driver choosing to
play a Christian station raises establishment clause issues.  It could be
argued that forcing a student to listen to a Christian station while on a
public school bus is similar to prayer in schools, which has been found to
constitute an establishment of religion.   I don't see how privacy issues
are involved here.

Establishing a policy that deals with the content on secular stations is
complicated.  While some parents may be offended by the music on WRED,
others may be offended by the content of the morning show banter on stations
like WBLM and WJBQ.  I don't know how a school district makes an assessment
of a station's programming.  It's not an easy issue.  You can turn off the
station if you don't like the programming but you can't do anything about a
station that is played on a school bus that your kid takes to school.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine