Ft. Worth Schools Agree to Treat Bible Club Equally
by Allie Martin
October 4, 2004
(AgapePress) - Legal action was avoided after school officials in one Texas city agreed to allow a local Bible club to hand out flyers to parents of elementary school students.Recently, representatives of a local Good News Club asked permission from Fort Worth Independent School District officials to distribute flyers in take-home packets to parents. The group's request was denied, even thought the district had previously allowed the Boy Scouts to distribute flyers through the program.
The Good News Club contacted Liberty Legal Institute, a legal group that fights for religious liberty and First Amendment rights, providing legal assistance free of charge to individuals, churches, and groups. LLI represents all Good News Clubs throughout the state of Texas.
Kelly Shackelford, LLI's president and chief counsel, says after several meetings between Liberty Legal, the Ft. Worth ISD officials, and the district's lawyers, the school officials obeyed the law.
"We went to the attorneys in charge of the school district," he notes, and after some discussion, the district reversed its stance. Now, he says, "the Good News Club is going to be allowed to pass out their flyers along with all the other groups who are allowed to pass out their flyers home to parents."
Also, Shackelford points out that it did not take long for the Ft. Worth ISD officials to do the right thing. "I think we've had enough legal battles with this school district [for the officials] to know that we're serious."
The LLI spokesman says when the Ft. Worth ISD got the call from the Good News Club's legal representatives, the school officials were concerned and addressed the matter diligently. "In fact," he notes, "their attorney said something to that effect to us and said, 'We know you guys are serious, and we're going to take care of this.' And they did."
Shackelford commends the Texas public school district for taking immediate steps to stop its unfair practices. He adds, "I think that's a great example of what school districts should do, instead of trying to justify their discrimination against religious groups. This is a school district that immediately corrected this, which I think is definitely the right way to go."
Liberty Legal Institute has its headquarters in Plano, Texas, and has six affiliate offices around the state. Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for LLI, says if all of the state's independent school districts behaved as Fort Worth ISD has in this religious discrimination case, such problems could be avoided all over Texas.
