Suit Claims College Volleyball Coach Required Team Members To Attend Church

The Wilmington News Journal and Courthouse News Service report on a lawsuit filed this week in federal district court in Delaware by a former Delaware Sate University volleyball player who says she lost her scholarship because she objected to the volleyball coach's requirement that players attend church and participate in other religious activities.  The suit filed by Natalia Mendieta, a Catholic, against former coach LaKisya Killingsworth and former athletic director Candy Young claims that in 2013 the coach required players to attend Sunday services with her at Calvary Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church. The coach also had the team pray before each match, distributed Bibles to the team and urged players to join the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. In 2014, the coach made religious activities optional, but still listed church on the team's schedule and favored those who attended.  The suit claims that after plaintiff objected to the church attendance requirement, the coach used plaintiff's violation of a curfew by a few minutes as an excuse for revoking her scholarship for the 2015-16 school year.

6th Circuit: County's Use of Religiously Sponsored School For Alternative Program Did Not Violate Establishment Clause

In Smith v. Jefferson County Board of School Commissioners, (6th Cir., June 11, 2015), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing the trial court, held that a Tennessee school board did not violate the Establishment Clause when, in the context of a budgetary crisis, it contracted with Kingswood, a private Christian school, to provide a state-mandated alternative program.  District students who had been suspended or expelled from their regular middle- or high-school were enrolled in Kingswood's "day" (as opposed to its more religious "residential") program. In a suit brought by two teachers who lost their jobs when the prior the board-run alternative school closed, the court said in part:

Here, a reasonable observer would not interpret the School Board’s relationship with Kingswood as a governmental endorsement of religion. Parents and students, for example, encountered only de minimis religious references in Kingswood’s day program. The evidence indicates that students in the day program were not exposed to any religious instruction, prayer, or any mentions of religion at all. Their school building was devoid of any religious imagery. Their assemblies in the chapel were as close as the day students came to religious exposure, and yet those assemblies were completely secular activities.

Perhaps the most overt religious references were the Biblical quotes on the report cards, family-feedback forms and—for those who sought them out—the annual report and school improvement plan.   But a reasonable observer would view all of these in the specific context of the arrangement that Kingswood had with Jefferson County. A budgetary crisis forced the Board to close its alternative school and, needing to accommodate the alternative-school students on short notice, the Board selected a high-performing, state-certified alternative school...

An ACLJ press release discusses the decision.

UPDATE: In the case, Judge Batchelder filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the result, but saying: "I cannot agree with the lead opinion’s dismissing as irrelevant last year’s Supreme Court opinion in Town of Greece." She said that while lower courts are required to follow Supreme Court decisions invoking the "endorsement" test until the Court explicitly overrules them, the Supreme Court appears to have rejected that test in favor of the historical "coercion" test.

Suit Challenging Prayer During School Free Time Dismissed By Parties

As reported today by the Colorado Springs Gazette, a Colorado federal district court on June 3, upon motion by plaintiffs (full text), dismissed a lawsuit (see prior posting) against Colorado Spring's Academy School District #20.  At issue was students' rights to gather together for prayer and religious discussion during free periods. The parties disagree however over how to characterize the events leading up to the dismissal.  Alliance Defending Freedom in a press release says the school backed off its policy of barring prayer and religious discussion during lunch periods, allowing it only before and after school.  The school says that the issue was never lunchtime, but instead whether students could gather during so-called Seminar period, an open period during the day when students could engage in other activities. For the last three years, student Chase Windebank who recently graduated has been leading an informal religious gathering during Seminar time and attendance had increased to over 90 students. The school district has now cancelled the Seminar period entirely for the upcoming school year, essentially eliminating the issue of whether religious activities are permitted during that time.

Court Allows Student Distribution of Gospel Tracts

In Leal v. Everett Public Schools, (WD WA, May 29, 2015), a Washington federal district court entered an order (full text) expunging the suspensions of high school senior Michael Leal who has been disciplined for insisting on handing out gospel tracts to fellow students.  The court also held that the portion of Everett Public Schools' policies that allow a student to hand out literature only if it is written or produced by the student violates Leal's free speech rights.  However, the court permitted the school to limit the locations and times at which Leal can hand out literature, and limit his preaching to a free speech area.  The court spelled out the reasons for its order in a ruling from the bench. King5 News reports on the decision as does a press release from Pacific Justice Institute.

Suit Challenges Middle School Field Trip To Christian Sports Complex

The American Humanist Association announced yesterday that it had filed a lawsuit against the Joplin, Missouri public school system challenging a middle-school field trip to a Christian sports complex.  The complaint (full text) in Doe v. Huff, (WD MO, filed 5/27/2015), alleges that the middle school's policy of scheduling student field trips to Victory Ministry and Sports Complex violates the Establishment Clause.  The suit seeks an injunction and punitive damages.

Suit Claims High School Extensively Promotes Evangelical Christianity Through Activities With Church

A Jewish teacher in a southern Colorado school district filed suit yesterday in federal district court alleging that the Florence, Colorado High School extensively promotes evangelical Christian activities through arrangements with a church, The Cowboy Church at Crossroads. The complaint (full text) in Basevitz v. Fremont RE-2 Schol District, (D CO, filed 5/26/2015), alleges in part:

The Cowboy Church at Crossroads is lead by Pastor Randy Pfaff, and meets every Sunday in the cafeteria of the School. The Church is advertised by two large signs that are hung on school property and are clearly visible to motorists.... 

The cornerstone of Pastor Pfaff and the Church’s “mission work” at the School is daily morning prayer in front of the School, at the flagpole.  Either Pastor Pfaff or another member of the Church has been present for this ceremony every day for the last three years. With the School’s support, Pastor Pfaff has led these services, ministering to the School’s students and staff while holding a bible and using a public address system to preach his evangelical Christian messages.... Numerous faculty members, in including Principal Schipper, participate in services.....

... Pastor Pfaff and the Church, with the support of the School’s administration, routinely minister to staff and students through the distribution of flyers promoting their evangelical Christian views...

Through the Fellowship’s front group, Pastor Pfaff and the Church also hold weekly lunches at the School. The students refer to this event as “Jesus Pizza.” This meeting is promoted to the School’s students and staff through the presence of a large sign in the hallway that reads “God loves you and has a plan for your life. Jeremiah 29:11.” ....  During these “Jesus Pizza” sessions, which are led by Pastor Pfaff, he preaches to and prays with Florence students....

Denver Post reports on the lawsuit.

Alabama Governor Signs Student Religious Liberties Act

Last Thursday (coinciding with the National Day of Prayer), Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed into law the Alabama Student Religious Liberties Act of 2015 (full text).  It prohibits discrimination against students or parents on the basis of religious viewpoint or religious expression.  It provides in part:

Students may express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. Homework and classroom assignments shall be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns....

It also provides that:

Students in public schools may pray or engage in religious activities or religious expression before, during, and after the school day in the same manner and to the same extent that students may engage in nonreligious activities or expression.

AL.com reports on the enactment of the new law. [Thanks to Blog From the Capital for the lead.]

Cranston Schools Go Back To Calendar With Religious Holdiays Off

As previously reported, this current year the Cranston, Rhode Island School Committee changed their traditional calendar that had school off for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Good Friday. This generated a lawsuit by teachers who, under the revised policy, did not qualify for taking Good Friday off with pay.  On Friday, the Providence Journal reported that the Cranston School Committee has now decided to reinstate its traditional policy. It adopted a 2015-16 school calendar that again has Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Good Friday as school holidays.

Oklahoma AG Promotes Right of Schools To Have Neutral Policy Allowing Bible Distribution

As reported by Raw Story, on Friday attorneys for the Duncan, Oklahoma Public Schools responded (full text of letter) to an earlier letter from the Appignani Humanist Legal Center complaining that an elementary school teacher had offered Bibles to her students. The school system will advise teachers and administrators not to hand out Bibles or other religious material and not encourage students during class time to take religious materials from others.  It will stop any distributions of Bibles at elementary schools during school hours or immediately before or after, though reserves the right to permit distributions at high schools.

Meanwhile yesterday Oklahoma's Attorney General Scott Pruitt announced a new program "to defend religious freedom and provide support to Oklahoma schools facing intimidation. The assistance includes creating a statewide training program to equip superintendents, teachers, parents, school board members, and others to know their rights."  In a letter to school superintendents (full text) that focuses on complaints that had been made by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Pruitt said in part:

Oklahomans do not need to live in fear that their government has become hostile to religion. Schools have a right to enact neutral policies that allow all viewpoints on religion to thrive. As the Attorney General of Oklahoma, I will not stand idly by while out-of-state organizations bully you or any other official in this State into restricting the religious freedom the Founders of this country held dear. 

Supreme Court Denies Cert. In Bronx Household of Faith Case

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday denied certiorari in Bronx Household of Faith v. Board of Education of the City of New York, (Docket No. 14-354, cert. denied 3/30/2015). (Order List).  In the widely watched case, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision held that the Board of Education of the City of New York did not violate the free exercise clause when in 2007 it changed its rules to bar the use of school facilities by churches for religious worship services. (See prior posting.)  The New York Times, reporting on the denial of review, says:

The decision permits Mayor Bill de Blasio to expel immediately dozens of religious organizations that have been holding worship services in city school buildings after hours and on weekends. But consistent with a pledge the mayor made during his campaign to lift the prohibition, a spokesman said on Monday that the city remained committed to allowing churches to use the schools on the same grounds as other organizations.

“Now that litigation has concluded, the city will develop rules of the road that respect the rights of both religious groups and nonparticipants,” the spokesman, Wiley Norvell, said in a statement. “While we review and revise the rules, groups currently permitted to use schools for worship will continue to be able to worship on school premises.”

In Italy, Lawsuit Raises Challenge To Prayer In Schools

New York Times reported yesterday that the continuing controversy over church-state relations in Italy is reflected in a recent lawsuit challenging the decision of a school board in Bologna to allow priests to offer an Easter blessing at three elementary schools.  Previously, a local court had held that an Easter prayer in a classroom during school hours was unconstitutional.  But the current plan is for voluntary prayer on school grounds shortly after the closing bell.  An Italian constitutional law expert commented:

In Italy, it is different. We do not have religion in the state, but we have tradition and relationships that link the Italian Republic with the Catholic Church.

A hearing on the challenge is not scheduled until later this week, and the blessing has already been recited at two of the schools. Prayer scheduled at one school for next Saturday has been canceled.

6th Circuit Rejects Good News Club's Fee Waiver Claim

In Child Evangelism Fellowship, Inc. v. Cleveland Metropolitan School District, (6th Cir., March 20, 2015), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction in a suit by Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) which had claimed that it was entitled to a waiver of fees for use of school facilities for its Good News Club meetings. CEF claimed that the school system engaged in viewpoint discrimination by waiving fees for the Boy Scouts but not for CEF. The majority said:

As the district court concluded, CEF’s evidence in support of its request for injunctive relief did not adequately show that the District had a fee-waiver policy. To the contrary, at this early juncture, the record supports the District’s position that it merely accepted in-kind payment in lieu of monetary fees.

Judge White dissented, saying that the in-kind contributions by the Boy Scouts to participating students did not amount to compensation to the school district, and thus amounted to a fee waiver.  She said:

I agree that CEF failed to “show[] that a fee-waiver policy even exists.” ... CEF has shown, however, that a fee-waiver practice existed between the District and the Boy Scouts and that despite repeated requests, the District did not provide CEF with a similar arrangement....

(See prior related posting.) [Thanks to Tom Rutledge for the lead.]

Canada's Supreme Court Says Quebec Catholic School Should Be Allowed Modified Religious Culture Program

In Loyola High School v. Quebec (Attorney General), (Sup Ct Canada, March 19, 2015), Canada's Supreme Court  held that the Quebec Minister of Education's refusal to grant an exemption to allow Loyola, an English-speaking Jesuit high school, to adopt an alternative to the mandated Program on Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) infringes the school's religious freedom more than is necessary to carry out the objectives of the ERC requirement.  The mandated ERC program has 3 components: religious culture, ethics and dialogue. The government insisted that all these parts be taught from a neutral perspective.  Loyola wanted to offer an alternative course taught from the perspective of Catholic beliefs and ethics. As summarized by the Court, the majority of 4 justices held that the case should be remanded to the Minister of Education in light of the following principles:

In the Quebec context, where private denominational schools are legal, preventing a school like Loyola from teaching and discussing Catholicism from its own perspective does little to further the ERC Program’s objectives while at the same time seriously interfering with religious freedom. The Minister’s decision suggests that engagement with an individual’s own religion on his or her own terms can be presumed to impair respect for others. This assumption led the Minister to a decision that does not, overall, strike a proportionate balance between the Charter  protections and statutory objectives at stake in this case.

That said, the Minister is not required to permit Loyola to teach about the ethics of other religions from a Catholic perspective. The risk of such an approach would be that other religions would necessarily be seen not as differently legitimate belief systems, but as worthy of respect only to the extent that they aligned with the tenets of Catholicism. This contradicts the ERC Program’s goals of ensuring respect for different religious beliefs. In a multicultural society, it is not a breach of anyone’s freedom of religion to be required to learn (or teach) about the doctrines and ethics of other world religions in a neutral and respectful way. In a religious high school, where students are learning about the precepts of one particular faith throughout their education, it is arguably even more important that they learn, in as objective a way as possible, about other belief systems and the reasons underlying those beliefs.

Three justices in a separate opinion argued that the Court should grant the exemption and fashion a remedy, saying:

Loyola’s teachers must be permitted to describe and explain Catholic doctrine and ethical beliefs from the Catholic perspective. Loyola’s teachers must describe and explain the ethical beliefs and doctrines of other religions in an objective and respectful way. Loyola’s teachers must maintain a respectful tone of debate, but where the context of the classroom discussion requires it, they may identify what Catholic beliefs are, why Catholics follow those beliefs, and the ways in which other ethical or doctrinal propositions do not accord with those beliefs.

 Orangeville Banner reports on the decision.

5th Circuit Affirms School's Rejection of Jesus Tattooed Jumbotron Ad

In a brief opinion in Little Pencil, L.L.C. v. Lubbock Independent School District, (5th Cir., March 13, 2015), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Texas federal district court's dismissal (see prior posting) of free speech and free exercise claims by an organization that unsuccessfully sought to display a religious ad on a high  school football field jumbotron. The ad depicted a tattooed Jesus and a website URL, and was part of a marketing concept using a new way to share the Bible's teachings.  KAMC News reports on the decision.

NYC's de Blasio Proposes Compromise On Religious Instruction In Pre-K Programs

AP reported yesterday that in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to expand the participation of Jewish, Christian and Muslim schools in his free pre-kindergarten program for 4-year olds by permitting schools to offer religious instruction and prayer during mid-day breaks. This proposal is particularly aimed at increasing the participation of Orthodox Jewish schools in the program. The New York Civil Liberties Union says this is an "end-run" around church-state restrictions.  Meanwhile, this arrangement may still be a problem for many Jewish schools who see the required secular 6 hour and 20 minute day as too long to leave time for additional religious instruction.  The city is proposing to allow schools to remain open 6 days per week, and also on federal holidays such as Christmas, so students can get 31 hours and 40 minutes of secular instruction per week. But a spokesman for Jewish schools says this compromise is still unworkable.

School Drops Required Disclaimer In Settlement of Suit On Student-To-Student Distributions

A suit filed last year (background) against a Loomis, California elementary school was settled last week with the school agreeing to change its policy on student distribution of invitations and flyers.  At issue was a reprimand to a student for handing out invitations to two of her friends for a "Genesis Apologetics" event that would discuss creation and evolution. The school insisted that even though the distribution was outside of class time, the flyers had to be stamped by the school with a disclaimer of sponsorship. According to a press release from Pacific Justice Institute, under the settlement the school will no longer insist on disclaimers on material given from one student to another.

In Germany, Humanist Students Now Can Get Holiday Excused Absence

AP reported yesterday that in Germany, the schools in Berlin have officially recognized World Humanist Day (June 21) as a holiday for which Humanist students can obtain an excused absence. This places the day on the same plane as religious holidays such as All Saints Day, Yom Kippur or Eid al-Fitr for which students of other faiths can get excused absences. [Thanks to Scott Mange for the lead.]

Former High School Softball Players' Suit On School Religious Activites Moves Ahead

In Ryan v. Mesa Unified School District, (D AZ, Dec. 5, 2014), three former members of a Mesa, Arizona high school varsity girls' softball team sued the school district and the softball coach, Joseph Goodman, over various religious activities. The court held that plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the school's LDS Church released time program. However, the court permitted plaintiffs to move ahead with two other claims, but only against Coach Goodman:

First, the court allowed an Establishment Clause claim alleging that during the 2013-14 girls softball season, certain players were appointed “prayer leaders” to lead a team prayer at the beginning of every game. Plaintiffs were dismissed from the team after one of them announced, and the others supported, an end to these prayers.

Second, the court allowed a free speech claim growing out of a 2014 softball tournament where hip-hop and other popular music was played to get players in a proper mental state for the game. One of the plaintiffs, the daughter of an LDS Church member, found the music offensive to her religious sensibilities. During the same tournament, the LDS parent of that plaintiff read a speech from a Tweet by another of the plaintiffs, and the content of the Tweet was reported to Coach Goodman.  Apparently this was related to the reason for plaintiffs' dismissal from the team.

Court Dismisses Challenge By Theists To Kansas Science Standards

In COPE v. Kansas State Board of Education, (D KA, Dec. 2, 2014), a Kansas federal district court dismissed on 11th Amendment and standing grounds a challenge to the Kansas State Board of Education science Framework and Standards. Students, parents, taxpayers and a non-profit organization sued claiming that adoption of these guidelines "will cause Kansas public schools to establish and endorse a non-theistic religious worldview in violation of the Establishment, Free Exercise, and Speech Clauses of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment."  As further explained by the court:

Plaintiffs contend that the Standards ... use... deceptive methods to lead impressionable children to answer questions about the cause of life with only materialistic or atheistic answers.

In its 25-page discussion of standing, the court said in part:

The Court concludes that our Circuit, when confronted with plaintiffs’ standing argument in this case, would follow the reasoning used by the Seventh and District of Columbia Circuits and hold that plaintiffs lack standing to sue where the only injury alleged is based on a “message” of government endorsement of religion.

AP reports on the decision. COPE has links to pleadings in the case.

Suit Challenges School-Sponsored Religious Activity

On Monday, the American Humanist Association and three individuals filed suit against the Hall County Georgia School District seeking to enjoin prayers and religious activities that are part of the District's football and other athletic programs. (Press release.) The complaint (full text) in American Humanist Association, Inc. v. Hall County School District, (ND GA, filed 12/1/2014) alleges in part:

This action challenges Defendants’ policy, practice, and custom of  authorizing faculty, coaches and other school officials to lead and participate in prayer with students during school-sponsored activities, and their policy, practice, and custom of inserting biblical references into official football team documents and banners, in violation of the Establishment Clause.