by John Manning • 2 minutes
This week, First Liberty sent a letter to the Waterville School District in upstate New York challenging its discriminatory actions against an 8th-grade student’s request to start a Bible club. We’re asking the school district to officially recognize the Bible club as required by law. The school turned down the student’s request stating, “we cannot have a school-sponsored club associated with a religion meaning that we can’t fund the club or provide an advisor.”
For the past two years Elijah Nelson, a student in the Waterville Central School District, asked his school if he could start a Bible club to connect with classmates who share his faith. Initially the request was denied, but later school representatives said that the club could meet informally during lunch while a staff member supervised the students without participating in the group’s activities; or the club could apply as an outside organization to use the school’s facilities after hours.
School officials told Elijah it would not “officially” recognize, “fund,” or “sponsor” the Bible club as it would any other club.
The school district cited the Equal Access Act of 1984 to support its decision stating that it “prohibits them from permitting religious clubs.” However, the actual wording of the Act says quite the opposite:
“It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school which receives Federal financial assistance and which has a limited open forum to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within that limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.”
By denying the same support for the Bible club as it does all non-curricular clubs, the school has missed the concept of “equal” in the Equal Access Act. But the greater violation lies in how the school district ignores the First Amendment.
“The Free Exercise Clause provides robust protection for religious students seeking to express their faith through extracurricular clubs,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel Keisha Russell. “The school’s actions are unconstitutional, and their justification is legally flawed. The Supreme Court has made clear that the Free Exercise Clause protects religious practices by both students and employees in public school settings.”
In the letter, our attorneys demand the school district provide the same support for the Bible club as all non-curricular clubs and stop the discrimination against the religious rights of the student making the request.
We explain what U.S. Supreme Court precedent has made clear: if a school allows any student clubs, it cannot deny a religious student club. In Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the Court set a major precedent protecting the right of employees and students to live out their faith in public schools, which includes expressing their religious beliefs through voluntary clubs. What’s more, in Good News Club v. Milford Central School, the nation’s highest court held that schools must grant religious clubs the same access as any other non-curricular club.
The school district would do well to remember the words of Noah Webster, the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” who said, “The Bible was America’s basic textbook in all fields.” It’s time for the Waterville School District to end its hostility, follow the law and allow the Bible club to meet the same as it does other clubs.
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