New York public school rejects student Christian club, OKs LGBT Pride Club
Wappingers Central School District
PO Box 396
25 Corporate Park Drive
Hopewell Junction, NY 12533
A New York school district violated federal law when it rejected a Christian student's request to start an on-campus Christian club, according to a nonprofit legal group representing the student.
The First Liberty Institute sent a letter to Wappingers Central School District on Wednesday demanding that it approve freshman Daniela Barca’s application to form the “OMG! Christian Club” at Roy C. Ketcham High School.
The aim of the club, according to First Liberty Institute, is to offer “faith-based support” during biweekly student-initiated meetings where students have “discussions about living for God in a godless society.”
First Liberty Institute has accused school officials of stonewalling and slow walking approval of Barca’s proposal.
Ultimately, the student's request was denied on grounds that a Christian club was too “exclusive” and that a public school could not support a religious club.
“[T]he discrimination toward Daniela’s religious speech has prevented OMG from pursuing their community-wide goals of ‘food drives, clothing drives, Operation Christmas Child’ and other charitable endeavors,” the letter from First Liberty Institute counsel Keisha Russell states.
“Ketcham school officials blatantly ignored the plain text of the Equal Access Act of 1984 by rejecting Daniela’s Christian club because of its religious speech. The act has been unequivocal on this point for 35 years.”
The EAA states that it is unlawful for public secondary schools that receive federal assistance and have limited open forums to “deny equal access or fair opportunity” to students who wish to conduct a meeting within the open forum on the basis of “religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.”
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