School District Repents, Reimburses Church for Excessive Rental Fees
by Jim Brown
May 24, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Seattle school district is paying the price for discriminating against a Christian church.Under its original two policies governing facilities rental, Everett School District No. 2 required religious groups to pay a higher fee than secular groups to use the same facilities for roughly the same purpose. Northview Community Church stopped meeting in the district's facilities in February 2003 because it could no longer afford the higher rates. The district had demanded that the church turn over its membership list in order to obtain a more favorable rate.
But after the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) intervened on behalf of Northview, the district agreed to reimburse the congregation for the $25,000 it was overcharged in comparison to a secular community group. The district also vowed it will no longer request membership lists from non-profits as a condition of approval.
ADF senior counsel Gary McCaleb says the district finally realized that all non-profit organizations are entitled to equal treatment under the law.
"We did try to settle it informally with a demand letter. They didn't agree to that, so we did file suit in federal court," the attorney explains. "After some months [during which] we did some depositions and got some facts on the table, I think they took a closer look at what the Constitution means and decided they better fix the problem rather than keep fighting it in court."
McCaleb says school districts need to understand that their "misguided notion" of separation of Church and State does not sanction treatment of churches or people of faith as "second-class citizens." As he puts it: "If you're going to rent your facilities, everybody basically pays the same."
In addition, he says, the U.S. Constitution makes it clear that churches and other non-profit groups do not have to divulge their membership lists in order to exercise free speech.
