Indiana Homeschooling Group Begins Civil Rights Defense Based on Menu Choice
by Staff
September 30, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS, (christiansunite.com) -- Attorneys from the Chicago-based Thomas More Society will appear tomorrow morning before an Indiana Civil Rights Commission (ICRC) administrative law judge to begin a trial in defense of charges that a Catholic home schooling group engaged in "disability discrimination" and "retaliation" in violation of the state's civil rights laws. The charges arise out of a disagreement over menu choices for a teenager with severe food allergies -- a disagreement that ignited a two-year long civil rights lawsuit against Fishers Catholic Enrichment Society (FACES), a volunteer group of 11 homeschooling families."These charges and the burden of defending against them have caused this small coalition of homeschooling families to cease operations," said Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel at the Thomas More Society. "Invoking the sovereign power of the State of Indiana against a group of 11 homeschooling families over a menu disagreement is an unwarranted and abusive misapplication of the civil rights laws."
A former FACES member complained to ICRC when her daughter was not permitted to eat a steak dinner at the group's 2008 All Souls Day Ball. The complaining mother initially had agreed with FACES leaders to bring an allergy-free meal to the Ball for her teen, but then later requested that FACES provide her daughter a steak dinner instead of the buffet chicken dinner served to other event attendees. Later, the complainant's family was dismissed from the group for repeated rule violations, and the mother then complained that the dismissal was in retaliation for her filing the initial discrimination complaint.
The Thomas More Society will adduce evidence that the mothers of FACES believed in good faith that the home-cooked allergy-free meal would be safest for the teen. Moreover, they intend to prove that the complaining mother repeatedly flouted FACES' rules, policies and directives, thereby undermining and precluding the group's ongoing activities. They will also argue that Indiana's civil rights laws were never intended nor designed to empower government officials to oversee the internal affairs of small religious and social groups like FACES, a group of families that associated for the purpose of adding a social dimension to their children's homeschooling experience within a Catholic religious context.
Breen added, "It has to be noted that the mother who filed these charges against FACES has also accused the ICRC investigator of not being 'fair and impartial,' accused the ICRC's administrative law judge of bias, and even tried to have him removed from the case, not to mention her personal attacks on other mothers of FACES and Thomas More Society attorneys. Regrettably, this case epitomizes the huge risks bound up with misusing civil rights laws to settle the personal quarrels that arise within any number of small volunteer groups, from parents running a Boy Scout troop to neighbors setting up a block party."
For more information and to follow the trial this week, visit thomasmoresociety.org.
About the Thomas More Society
Founded in 1997, the Thomas More Society is a national public interest law firm that exists to restore respect for life in law. Based in Chicago, the Thomas More Society defends the sanctity of human life, the family and religious liberty in courtrooms across the country. The Society is a nonprofit organization wholly supported by private donations. For more information or to support the work of Thomas More Society, please visit www.thomasmoresociety.org.
