Showing posts with label Discrimination in Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Discrimination in Education. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 01, 2023

Suit Challenges Oklahoma's Approval of Catholic Charter School

Suit was filed yesterday in an Oklahoma state trial court challenging the decision of the state's Virtual Charter School Board to approve a Catholic-sponsored charter school that will be funded by the state. The 70-page complaint (full text) in OKPLAC, Inc. v. Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, (OK Dist. Ct., filed 7/31/2023) alleges that the school's application indicated that the school's operation would violate numerous provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution, the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act, and regulations of the Virtual Charter School Board. The complaint alleges in part:

St. Isidore submitted notarized statements that it would comply with antidiscrimination and other legal requirements only “to the extent required by law, including . . . religious exemptions . . . with priority given to the Catholic Church’s understanding of itself and its rights and obligations pursuant to the Code of Canon Law and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”...

Because St. Isidore’s program requires students to submit to instruction in particular religious tenets, it is not actually open to children of all faiths and is instead discriminatory based on religion....

St. Isidore also will discriminate among prospective or enrolled students based on sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy outside of marriage, and sexual activity outside of marriage....

The Charter Schools Act requires charter schools to be “nonsectarian in [their] programs . . . and all other operations.”...

ACLU issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

Wednesday, February 01, 2023

Australia Proposes New Antidiscrimination Requirements For Religious Educational Institutions

On January 27, the Australian Law Reform Commission released a 54-page Consultation Paper on Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws (full text). The Commission summarized the Paper in a press release:

The Australian Law Reform Commission seeks stakeholder submissions on proposals to change the way Commonwealth anti-discrimination law applies to religious schools and other educational institutions.

The Consultation Paper sets out four general propositions supported by 14 technical proposals for reform. If adopted, these would:

make discrimination against students on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status, or pregnancy in schools and other religious educational institutions unlawful, by removing exceptions currently available under federal law,

protect teachers and other school staff from discrimination on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or relationship status, or pregnancy, by removing similar exceptions, and

allow religious schools to maintain their religious character by permitting them to:

give preference to prospective staff on religious grounds where the teaching, observance, or practice of religion is a part of their role (and it is not discriminatory on other grounds); and

require all staff to respect the educational institution’s religious ethos.

Law and Religion Australia has more extensive reporting on the proposal.

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Proposed Rule Amendments Say Title IX Bars LGBT Discrimination

Last Thursday, the Department of Education issued a 700-page Release (full text) proposing amendments to the regulations implementing Title IX which bars sex discrimination in education programs or activities that receive federal funding. Among other things, a new rule, 34 CFR 106.10, would provide:

Discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Tuesday, March 09, 2021

Executive Order Calls For Review To Assure No Discrimination In Education On Basis of Sex, Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity

Yesterday President Biden issued an Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity (full text). It calls for a review of existing federal regulations and guidance documents to assure "an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual violence, and including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. "

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Parents' Challenge To School's LGBT Non-Discrimination Rules Dismissed For Lack of Standing

 In Reynolds v. Talberg, (WD MI, Oct 30, 2020), a Michigan federal district court dismissed, primarily for lack of standing, parents' challenge to a school district's policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The court said in part:

Citing their Christian faith, Plaintiffs contend the Challenged Policies force their children to disregard their sincerely held religious beliefs and to “affirm[] . . . alternative sexual lifestyles” or else face punishment.... The crux of Plaintiffs’ claim is that the Challenged Policies “promote and force the approval of alternate sexual lifestyles and behavior” in a “manner that infringes upon Plaintiffs’ personal identity, autonomy, and their sincerely held religious beliefs and convictions and constitutional right to oppose such policies and freely speak out on such issues in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs.” ... Though Plaintiffs claim that the Challenged Policies permit Williamston public schools to punish students who refuse to “affirm[] . . . alternative sexual lifestyles”..., and would permit students to use bathroom and shower facilities in accordance with their gender identity..., the complaint does not allege that any student represented by Plaintiffs has been disciplined or otherwise restrained under the Challenged Policies, nor do they allege that any transgender student has used facilities in accordance with their gender identity.

The court also rejected a vagueness challenge to the regulations. 

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Christian School Denied Injunction Against Anti-Discrimination Provisions In Aid Programs

In Bethel Ministries, Inc. v. Salmon, (D MD, Jan. 21, 2020), a Maryland federal district court refused to issue a preliminary injunction requested by a Christian elementary school. Bethel Christian Academy sought to enjoin enforcement of a provision requiring non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in order to participate in state-sponsored scholarship and school aid programs.  The court concluded that the school had not shown that the state targeted, was hostile to, or expressly discriminated against the school because of its religious beliefs. Nor had the school shown a likelihood of success on its claim that its free speech rights were infringed.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Michigan Supreme Court Holds Ecclesiastical Abstention Doctrine Is Not Jurisdictional

In Winkler v. Marist Fathers of Detroit, Inc., (MI Sup. Ct., June 27, 2017), the Michigan Supreme Court held that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine:
requires a case-specific inquiry that informs how a court must adjudicate certain claims within its subject matter jurisdiction; it does not determine whether the court has such jurisdiction in the first place.
The court explained:
What matters ...  is whether the actual adjudication of a particular legal claim would require the resolution of ecclesiastical questions....
With that understanding, the Supreme Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for it to decide whether Michigan's Persons With Disabilities Civil Rights Act applies to religious schools.  At issue in the case is a Catholic high school's denial of admission to a student who contends that the denial was because of her learning disability.

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Civil Rights Suit By Student Alarm-Clock Maker Dismissed

In Mohamed v. Irving Independent School District, (ND TX, May 18, 2017), a Texas federal district court dismissed the civil rights claims brought on behalf of an African-American Muslim high school student who was arrested and suspended from school for 3 days when a home-made clock he brought to school was mistaken by his teachers for a bomb. (See prior posting.) The incident received national attention. Plaintiff (the student's father) alleged violations of the Equal Protection clause, the 4th and 5th Amendments, and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. WDBO News reports on the decision.

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Texas Muslim Teen-- Alarm Clock Inventor-- Sues For Discrimination

As reported by the Dallas Observer, a lawsuit was filed yesterday in a Texas federal district court by teenager Ahmed Mohamed who made news last September when his Irving, Texas school teacher mistook an alarm clock Mohamed had constructed for a bomb. Police were called in and both an arrest and school discipline followed. As summarized by plaintiffs' lawyer:
Despite the fact that (the Irving police) knew it wasn't a bomb, that he never threatened anyone, never alarmed anyone, they yanked him out of his chair, put him in handcuffs and arrested him. There was no cause for arrest. Even after the police acknowledged it didn't look like a bomb, the school suspended him. So yes, those are violations of his civil rights.
The complaint (full text) in Mohamed v. Irving Independent School District, (ND TX, file 8/8/2016), asking for damages and an injunction, alleges in part:
The IISD has a long and ugly history of race struggles up to and including the Board of Trustees. Additionally, the State of Texas, including the IISD, has a history of discrimination against Muslims in Texas curriculum and schools. 

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Indiana Supreme Court Interprets Civil Rights Commission Jurisdiction Over Educational Matters Narrowly

In Fishers Adolescent Catholic Enrichment Society, Inc. v. Bridgewater, (IN Sup. Ct., Jan. 6, 2015), the Indiana Supreme Court held that the state's Civil Rights Commission exceeded its authority when it adjudicated disability discrimination and retaliation claims growing out of a dispute between members of a group ("FACES") created to provide homeschool high schoolers with Catholic educational, spiritual, and social enrichment. A family filed a discrimination complaint with the Civil Rights Commission when FACES refused to make health-related dietary accommodations for their daughter at an "All Souls' Day Masquerade Ball" dinner-dance. The complaint led to the family's being expelled from FACES.

The Indiana Civil Rights Law, Sec. 22-9-1-3(l), bars discriminatory practices only when they relate to "the acquisition or sale of real estate, education, public accommodations, employment, or the extending of credit." The Supreme Court said:
The dinner-dance at which Mrs. Bridgewater contends that FACES failed to accommodate her daughter's food allergy furthered ... Catholic spiritual and social enrichment. It was not an occasion for the teaching of academic subjects as part of the student's curriculum.... The alleged disability discrimination thus occurred at a quasi-religious social function, not an educational one. To expansively interpret "relating to . . . education," ... to apply to this dinner would convert almost every occasion of parental guidance and training into an activity "related to education." This would eviscerate the function of "related to education" as a legislative prerequisite for the Commission's enforcement powers.
Justice Rucker dissented.

Thomas More Society issued a press release announcing the decision.