In Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators' Association, 460 U.S. 37 (1983), the forum in question was the internal interschool mail system, including teachers' mailboxes, for the Perry Township public schools. Perry Education Association ("PEA") was elected the sole bargaining representative for the teachers' union. Under a collective bargaining agreement, the Board of Education ("Board") gave PEA access to the mail system. Other, rival, teaching organizations were not given access. Perry Local Educators' Association ("PLEA"), one such organization, filed suit against PEA and certain Board members, alleging that they were violating its First Amendment right to free speech by denying it access to the mail system. PLEA argued that the mail system was a limited public forum, and no compelling government interest was served by restricting its access to it. PEA and the Board members took the position that the mail system was a nonpublic forum, and the restriction on access was reasonable. The federal district court entered judgment for PEA. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that, having opened its mail system to PEA, the Board violated PLEA's First Amendment right to free speech by denying it equal access to the system. The Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari and reversed. The Court held that the mail system was a nonpublic forum. It explained that when a government intentionally opens a government property for use for expressive activity by the general public, it creates a public forum and is bound by the same speech-restricting standards that apply in a traditional public forum, even if it had no obligation to create the public forum to begin with. The Board's intended purpose in establishing the mail system was to facilitate internal communication of school related matters to teachers, not to provide a communication channel for the general public. Indeed, the mail system never had been open to the general public. The practice always had been that any outside entity wanting access to the mail system had to seek permission from the individual building principal. "This type of selective access does not transform government property into a public forum." Perry Educ. Ass'n, 460 U.S. at 47.