## Facts

- Katy Independent School District (KISD) participated in a holiday art-card fundraising program with a private vendor that produced greeting cards using student-associated artwork.
- KISD sent order forms home through the schools; the forms were branded with the school’s name and listed the names of school art teachers.
- The order forms offered several pre-set seasonal or holiday greetings, including messages referencing Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
- One pre-printed option quoted a verse from the Gospel of Matthew and explicitly referenced a specific deity and scripture.
- KISD officials blacked out that Bible-verse option before distributing the order forms, citing concern that inclusion could be viewed as school endorsement of religion and create Establishment Clause risk.
- There was no showing that art classes were devoted to producing art for the fundraiser, and participation by families was voluntary.

## Issues

1. Whether the fundraiser order form and its pre-set greeting options constituted school-sponsored speech, government speech, or private speech in a forum.
2. If the speech were treated as private speech, whether blacking out only the Bible-verse option was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination under the Free Speech Clause.
3. Whether excluding the Bible-verse option was permissible as a school-sponsored editorial decision reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical and constitutional concerns, including avoiding perceived religious endorsement.

## Decision

- The court denied the parents’ motion for reconsideration and left in place summary judgment for KISD.
- The court treated the fundraiser communications and pre-set greetings as school-sponsored speech governed by *Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier*.
- Applying *Hazelwood*, the court held KISD permissibly exercised editorial control by removing the Bible-verse option to avoid a reasonable perception of school endorsement of a specific religious message.
- The court rejected the argument that KISD’s action constituted unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in this school-sponsored context.

## Legal Principles

- School-sponsored expressive activities may be subject to editorial control by school officials when the control is reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns (*Hazelwood* standard).
- Fundraising materials distributed through and identified with a public school may be treated as school-sponsored speech even when produced by a private vendor.
- Avoiding a reasonable perception that a public school endorses a particular religious message can qualify as a legitimate justification for restricting content in school-sponsored communications.
- In school-sponsored speech settings, forum-based viewpoint-neutrality rules do not apply in the same manner as they do to a true public or limited public forum for private speech.

## Conclusion

The court upheld KISD’s decision to remove a Bible-verse greeting from a school-distributed fundraiser order form, concluding the materials were school-sponsored and that the restriction was a constitutionally permissible editorial choice under *Hazelwood* aimed at avoiding perceived governmental endorsement of religion.


Pounds v. Katy Indep. Sch. Dist., 730 F. Supp. 2d 636 (S.D. Tex. 2010)