Student Sues To Get High School Recognition For Christian Student Group

In a federal lawsuit filed in Vermont last week by the Alliance Defense Fund (press release), a student challenged the refusal by Middlebury Union High School to give official recognition to Youth Alive, a student-run Christian organization. The complaint (full text) in V.O. v. Union School District No. 3, (D VT, Oct. 11, 2007), alleges that the school's refusal violates the federal Equal Access Act, First Amendment free speech and free exercise rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection and due process clauses. Plaintiff says that the school recognizes other non-curriculum related student groups. The school's letter refusing recognition said that if Youth Alive were recognized as a co-curricular club, its activities would become school-sponsored with monetary support and an assigned advisor, and that this sponsorship would violate the Establishment Clause. The school says that, as in the past, it will grant Youth Alive meeting space and space for posters advertising its meetings.