Bible Club Battles Maryland School District in Discrimination Suit
by Jim Brown
May 30, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is continuing to pursue its lawsuit against the Montgomery County Public School System in Maryland. The legal action was filed after the school district refused to send students home with flyers promoting the Christian group's Good News Bible Clubs.Two years ago, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that barring the CEF flyer distribution violated the group's free speech rights. The Montgomery County school district then adopted a "revised" literature distribution policy. However, Christian Legal Society senior litigation counsel Kim Colby, who represents CEF, claims the new policy is also unconstitutional.
According to the school system's general literature distribution policy, a group that wants its flyers distributed can ask the school system, Colby says, or it can ask any government agency, any sports team, any PTA, or any on-campus daycare provider. However, she notes, officials at Montgomery County Public Schools "took the position that they wouldn't give CEF permission to distribute the flyer unless CEF first got approval from one of these other groups."
The Christian club should not have to get approval from another group first in order to get its flyers distributed by the school district, the attorney insists. She believes Montgomery County is implementing its newly revised policy unfairly, and by way of evidence she points to the fact that the County Recreation Department, the Baha'i community, and a Methodist church tutoring program -- as well as other area churches -- are allowed to send flyers home with students.
"It's really invidious discrimination to be told the reason we don't treat you the same as everyone else is you have a Christian evangelical perspective," Colby asserts. The Christian club is allowed to have its meetings after school, she says, "but it's tough if you can't get the word out as easily as other groups can to let parents know that this is an option."
Last week, a three-judge panel heard oral arguments in CEF's second appeal to the Fourth Circuit. Colby says CEF will continue to battle for its free speech and equal access rights, as well as to compel the Montgomery County public schools to stop discriminating against the evangelical Christian group.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
