School rips down Christian student’s posters, orders her to give up ‘Good News’ club name
Many schools across America now are under the influence of leftist administrators, anti-faith teachers’ unions, anti-Christian teachers.
And the schools’ actions reflect the personal ideologies and religious beliefs, or non-beliefs, of their faculty and managers.
But the American Center for Law and Justice has come across one that has gone to extremes.
It ripped down posters for being too Christian, it ordered a student club to discontinue using the “Good News” name, it ordered censorship of well-known Bible verses and a cross image, it demanded access to planned promotions to determine “whether they were too religious,” it banned an entire video series planned by the club, and tore down posters a second time.
“School officials took over and started running the club, insisting on what religious materials were and were not acceptable,” the ACLJ reported. “This is viewpoint discrimination in its purest form – and it’s unlawful.”
The organization explained it has dispatched a demand letter, often a precursor to a lawsuit, to the school as it defends “the constitutional rights of a high school student in New York whose Christian beliefs and religious expression have been repeatedly blocked by school officials.”
The organization cited violations of both the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act.
“We are representing a family whose daughter, Jenna, a ninth-grade student at Carmel High School, was denied her right to express her Christian faith and conduct a student Bible club – something countless other students at the school are freely allowed to do. Jenna’s only ‘offense’ was her desire to encourage her peers and share the hope of her faith. For that, school officials took extreme measures to silence her,” the ACLJ reported.
“After persistent efforts to gain approval for her faith-based group, Jenna finally received permission to form her club. But her constitutional struggle was far from over. To kick off the Bible club, she created simple posters that announced the club’s upcoming meeting. The posters included a welcoming message, a handful of well-known Bible verses, a cross, and an invitation for all students – something Jenna herself feels strongly about – to attend and be encouraged by the words of Jesus. Still, school officials removed the posters from the hallways.”
They explained she used “too many Bible verses.” And they told her the club could not be the “Good News Club.”
“Her posters were censored because they were Christian, and she had her religious messages removed. School officials went as far as insisting on reviewing her posters to determine whether they were too religious,” the legal team explained.
Even after she met every demand from the school, officials there decided to “double down.”
“When her group decided to show a faith-based video series meant to strengthen students in their personal battles of the mind and spirit – her new posters were again torn down. This time, administrators went even further, banning the entire video series from being shown, citing vague ‘complaints’ about the religious content,” the report said.
Then the school officials demanded to decide “what religious materials were and were not acceptable.”
The ACLJ pointed out the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed students’ rights to have Bible clubs. It fought and won the Board of Education v. Mergens precedent more than three decades ago.
The student is protected under both of the federal precedents, and “The law is clear: School officials cannot censor religious speech simply because others might disagree with it,” the report said.
What the school needs to do is end its “unconstitutional suppression of this student’s rights and provide written assurances that Jenna and her peers may meet and express their religious views without interference. If the district refuses, we are fully prepared to file a lawsuit,” the ACLJ said.