Attorney: District's Discrimination Suit Settlement Good News for Kids
by Allie Martin
September 17, 2004
(AgapePress) - A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by a Christian club and the Virginia school district it had charged with discriminatory practices. Now the after-school Good News Club will be able to use district facilities for its meetings without having to pay a special "access fee."Late last year a representative from Child Evangelism Fellowship, which runs Good News Clubs, applied to reserve a classroom in the Louisa County School District in Charlottesville for its after-school meetings. Good News Clubs teach children morals and character development from a Christian perspective, using songs, crafts, Bible stories, scripture verses and other youth-oriented activities.
However, school district officials refused to grant the club free use of school facilities, claiming that religious groups, unlike secular entities, were required to pay an access fee. The club sought help from the Florida-based legal group Liberty Counsel, which sued the district on the club's behalf, claiming religious discrimination.
But now that lawsuit has been settled. According to Liberty Counsel president and chief counsel Mat Staver, the legal group and its clients were able to enter into a court-approved, stipulated settlement with the school district just a few days before a federal court hearing was to take place.
"Now," Staver says, "the good news is that the winners of this case, really, are the children, who will be able to begin meeting after school, immediately, with the Good News Clubs -- and that there will be no charge for this club meeting."
Mat Staver | |
The attorney adds that he is grateful to the school district for responding to the case and settling the suit, rather than actually taking everyone concerned through a hearing. "Some schools, you know, insist on violating what is clear law," he says.And according to the attorney, the clear law is this: "Whenever school facilities or government facilities open up their facilities for secular meetings, they must allow Christian groups to meet as well on the same equal terms.
"If that means free access for the secular groups of a similar nature," he says, "that means also free access for the Christian groups."
Staver says Good News Clubs have a positive impact on schools and neighborhoods throughout the nation, and should receive the same treatment and have the same access that secular community groups enjoy. But in the Louisa County School District case, the Liberty Counsel spokesman feels the Good News Club was being unfairly and unlawfully singled out.
