Pro-Family Legal Group Pressures School to Lift Salvation Army Ban
by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
December 15, 2003
(AgapePress) - An Alabama school district says it will no longer bar The Salvation Army from soliciting donations outside an elementary school.For years The Salvation Army has been invited to Woodland Forrest Elementary School in Tuscaloosa to take up a collection for the homeless and needy. But all that changed when one parent, a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union, objected to the presence of The Salvation Army, arguing that it is a religious group.
The collection project at the school was totally initiated and driven by students, was on a volunteer basis, occurred before school hours, and had gone on for years without any problems until the recent parental complaint invoking the separation of Church and State.
The school district attempted to reach a compromise by having student volunteers cover up the name of God in the phrase "God bless you," which was written on a sign over the collection bucket. However, this failed to appease the complaining parent, who continued threatening to bring a lawsuit against the school.
Joe Murray, a staff attorney for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, says his legal group was contacted by people at the school who objected to the administrators' official decision to bar the charitable organization from the campus.
"This was a student project, and they were upset that [The Salvation Army was] being kicked off the school grounds," Murray says, "so we drafted a letter basically telling the school 'What you're doing is wrong, it's not supported by the law, and these folks have a right to come onto the school grounds and collect.'"
The attorney says after receiving the letter from the AFA Law Center, officials with the Tuscaloosa school district realized they were acting unconstitutionally, and agreed to lift the ban. He points to the ACLU member's complaint as one more example of how some people have "hijacked" the Establishment Clause of the Constitution and tried to turn it into something that it is not.
"The mere fact that a group mentions God or respects God does not foreclose their access to these school functions," Murray says.
From December 15-19, The Salvation Army will be collecting donations on the sidewalks of Woodland Forrest Elementary. Murray says the school district should be commended for standing up for principle and allowing The Salvation Army and the student volunteers to honor the true meaning of the Christmas season with their charitable activities.
