I agree with you. There is no need for the school to have all that "paper work." What do they think the kids will be building - weapons of mass destruction? This request is demeaning and I would fight it. Religious groups are too often ready to take just the crumbs from the government table.
The permission slips are just a way to create a shopping list for the handful of whackos that will be discomfited or made "uncomfortable" by the presence of a group with a moral foundation.
So much for free assembly. I wonder how the libs reconcile this with the concept of "diversity" when certain groups are hounded for not being, well, liberal? Where is the tolerance?