We recently became involved in a situation in the Deep South involving a high school instructor who worked in a local public school. This rather large school had a number of student-led clubs, including a chess club, an archery club, and a Bible club. This instructor was the staff supervisor for the Bible club, which met during lunch each Thursday.
Members of the Bible club noticed that announcements had been made over the school’s PA system to advertise meetings of the chess club and the archery club, but when the staff supervisor approached the school office staff about announcing the Bible club meeting, he was told it was not possible for such an announcement to be made.
At first, the Bible club supervisor thought there might have been a mistake, but the more he looked into it, the more he realized that the school was planning to allow the chess and archery clubs to announce their meetings, but not the Bible club. One of the school administrators had the opinion that making such an announcement might offend some non-Christian students and perhaps violate the notion of the separation of church and state. Frankly, this administrator simply did not want to deal with any negative consequences that might be associated with these Bible club announcements.
When the Bible club supervisor contacted the Christian Law Association, our attorneys were able to quickly discern that the school was practicing unlawful religious discrimination against the Bible club. The school could, of course, ban all clubs from operating on its premises. Alternatively, they could continue to allow all clubs to meet on school property, but ban all of these student-led organizations from making announcements over the school’s PA system. What was illegal, of course, was allowing one club to exercise a privilege that was denied another.
In this particular case, our attorneys provided the Bible club supervisor with the information he needed to have respectful, but factually accurate, discussions with his supervisors; and we sent a letter to the appropriate administrator, a letter that clearly explained how the law applied to this situation and what the consequences could potentially be for schools that did not follow the law. In a short amount of time, the situation was resolved, and it seemed to be resolved in a way that left all parties on friendly terms. The members of the Bible club were relieved that they were no longer being treated as second-class citizens, and the announcements that were made over the school PA system did not seem to cause any difficulties.
In many ways, our nation is experiencing turmoil. Some would go so far as to say that the America of fifty years ago is no longer recognizable. Regardless of the profound changes that affect the cultural fabric of our society, it is still the law of the land that religious discrimination may not be practiced at the public school. It is important for God’s people to understand the technicalities of the law and to have great wisdom as they work through these issues. When there are questions and difficult situations, the Christian Law Association is honored to stand with you to ensure that your legally protected religious rights here in the United States remain unhindered.