Fellowship of Christian Athletes Sues Middle School After Field Trip Denial

Louisiana's Calcasieu Parish School Board has a policy permitting student clubs to apply for approval to take field trips with transportation provided on school buses. Last week, a Lake Charles (LA) middle school student who is chaplain of the school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) filed suit in federal court challenging the school's denial of an application for FCA to use a school bus for a field trip to a "Just for Jesus" event. The complaint (full text) alleges that the denial violates the federal Equal Access Act as well as the First and 14th Amendments. Plaintiff's Memorandum in support of its application for a temporary restraining order argues that the denial of CFA's application was both content-based and viewpoint-based discrimination. Alliance Defense Fund issued a press release on the case last Thursday.