SALT LAKE CITY -- Public schools would be allowed to prevent students from forming gay-straight alliance clubs if they think such groups would threaten the "moral well-being" of students or faculty, under a bill the Senate will debate.

The version of House Bill 236 approved Friday by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee is much different from one the House approved earlier this week that required parental consent for students to join clubs.

That's because Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, substituted the bill in a Rules Committee meeting and then directed it toward the committee he's chairman of.

Buttars is a longtime opponent of gay-straight alliances. Last year during debate on a similar effort to ban gay clubs, he called the clubs recruiting tools for homosexuals and contended they were tearing down the moral pillars of society.

The version of the bill approved by his committee 3-2 along party lines Friday is nearly identical to the one originally proposed by Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville.

Tilton's bill was changed in the House because representatives said it created too many regulations for student clubs.

The measure would have banned student clubs from discussing human sexuality or contraceptives, but it didn't stop there.

The bill would have cast a wide regulatory net over all clubs, requiring students to draw up a charter and bylaws for something as simple as playing pingpong or chess.

Those requirements are now back in the bill, which is opposed by the State Board of Education.

Tilton was grilled during the committee meeting by Sen. Scott McCoy, a Salt Lake City Democrat who is the only openly gay member of the Senate.

McCoy tried to pin Tilton down on whether he considers gay-straight alliances and the discussions that occur in them as crossing the bounds of socially acceptable behavior, which would be prohibited in the bill.

But Tilton wouldn't bite, saying it's up to local school districts to decide.

"What I'm hearing is that school boards and schools have all kind of discretion. It sounds to me East High may interpret it one way, Provo High may interpret it another way," McCoy said.

McCoy tried to substitute the bill back to the version the House passed, but failed 3-2.

The Senate is expected to approve the revised bill, but the House would have to agree to the changes before it could become law.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.