Settlement Reached In Christian High School Group's Equal Access Claim

Alliance Defense Fund announced Friday that it had reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year against the Deer Valley, Arizona Unified School District. (See prior posting.) The settlement will allow a Christian student group, Common Cause, to present video announcements of the group's activities, including a weekly morning prayer gathering, through Mountain Ridge High School's public address system and through distribution of leaflets on campus, on the same basis as non-religious groups are permitted to do so. In May, a federal district court in Krestan v. Deer Valley Unified School District, (D AZ, May 9, 2008), issued a preliminary injunction against the school, finding that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim under the federal Equal Access Act as to the announcements which the school had previously refused to disseminate. The court found that the school's policy of limiting the days on which leaflets could be distributed by any student group was likely valid.