Legal Group Prefers Competition on the Field, Not in Courtroom
by Allie Martin
June 2, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Four public school districts in Virginia are reversing an earlier decision and now will schedule athletic events with a well-known private Christian school.Earlier this year the athletic director for Liberty Christian Academy (LCA) was informed by representatives of eight public school districts that the private school was no longer welcome to take part in training camps, practice competitions, or any other regularly scheduled sporting events. Soon after LCA responded in writing to those districts threatening legal action, the school learned that district athletic directors and coaches had been instructed during a meeting by some of the boycott leaders not to schedule games with LCA -- and that if they did, they too would be boycotted.
Florida-based Liberty Counsel authored the letter sent to the districts. The legal group's chairman, Mat Staver, says four districts have now had a change of heart.
Mat Staver | |
"It's one thing to not play another school," Staver says, "[but] it's another thing to participate in an intentional, illegal boycott targeting a particular school and essentially trying to shut down the athletic program. As a result, now four school districts have publicly distanced themselves and are backing away from the boycott, and we're very pleased with that."The four districts that have agreed to schedule games with LCA are located in Pittsylvania, Appomattox, Bedford, and Campbell counties. The original eight also included Nelson, Prince Edward, and Amherst counties and the City of Lynchburg. Staver says Liberty Counsel is still waiting to hear from them.
"We're ... calling on the remaining four to stop their religious bigotry and to break away from this boycott or face the consequential actions that will happen in a civil courtroom," the attorney says. "We would much rather play them and compete against them on the playing field than in the courtroom."
Staver is hopeful the truth will come to light. "As one school district after another comes forward and is willing to schedule games, it becomes clear -- as we have always suspected -- where the boycott for originated," he says, adding his legal firm will continue to pursue the matter until every district decides to "play fair."
For decades, LCA -- which was founded by Dr. Jerry Falwell -- has participated in athletic competition, training camps, and other events with student athletic teams from high schools in the eight districts. Staver says lawsuits likely will be filed against any of the remaining public school districts that ban the Christian academy from competitions.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
