April 1, 2008In December 2007, a young student -- we'll call her "Kristine" -- at East Valley High School (EVHS) in Spokane, Washington, attempted to meet with a few other students for religious discussions, prayer, and fasting. These meetings were scheduled during non-instructional time in the career services room, which the school makes available for group activities three days a week during the lunch period.
If this sounds innocent and well within Kristine's constitutional rights...you're right. But school officials disagreed.
During meetings with Kristine's family, EVHS Principal Jeff Miller claimed that such meetings would violate the so-called "separation of church and state." He also claimed district policies prohibited meetings with religious purposes from taking place on school grounds, even though groups could meet for nonreligious purposes.
The school's position represents a serious (and increasingly common) threat to the most basic constitutional rights of every American -- including those in public schools.
"The school's position is at odds with numerous court decisions on such matters," explains ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. "As the Supreme Court has stated, students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate."
Just a few weeks ago, we told you about a situation in Glendale, Arizona, where The Common Cause club at Mountain Ridge High School was prohibited from exercising the same rights given to other student organizations. The administration objected to the use of the words "pray" and "prayer" in announcements to the student body -- at one point, the vice principal actually tore up an announcement inviting students to participate in a club activity.
The Alliance Defense Fund is being alerted to more and more of these situations all over the country, and we are committed to meeting these challenges to religious freedom in the courtroom, and winning! Already, ADF attorneys have filed a federal lawsuit against the East Valley School District, asking the court to protect the rights of Christian students.
A copy of the complaint filed in
A.L. vs. East Valley School District No. 361 is available at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/ALComplaint.pdf.
Please continue to pray for God's provision and blessing as we work together to defend
Our First Liberty -- religious freedom. The future of our children and grandchildren hangs in the balance.