Charlie Brown Case

Christmas Story Time

Joan Wilson and Wilma Wells are proud residents of the Kalkaska Memorial Health Center’s (KMHC) senior living facility in Michigan. They look forward to the annual visit of pre-school kids from KMHC each Christmas. Sadly, the spirit of this past Christmas was hushed for them.

On December 6, 2018 students from the Great Start Readiness Program and KMHC Child Development Center and Pre-School visited residents of the Kalkaska Memorial Assisted Living Center to hear elderly residents read Christmas stories. Stories such as Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” were heard without any interruption; however, this was not the case for Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Wells.

During the visit, Mrs. Wells read a book about Christmas traditions and asked the children if they knew why we celebrate Christmas when an unidentified CDCP employee accompanying the students interjected, stating “We won’t go there, Wilma.”

A similar incident happened when Mrs. Wilson began reading “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” While Mrs. Wilson noticed the children getting restless, she began to summarize Linus’s historical account of the Christmas story. During this time, the same employee interrupted her, abruptly cancelled the visit, and escorted children out before Mrs. Wilson could finish.

That’s when Wilma and Joan contacted First Liberty Institute.

First Liberty Takes Action

The actions of the employee were a violation of Wilma and Joan’s free speech and religious speech as private citizens, which are protected under the First Amendment. Silencing them was also illegal viewpoint discrimination. Private citizens should be allowed to speak in their own living environments.

First Liberty sent a letter to KMHC asking they institute policies ensuring its employees will abide by laws protecting First Amendment rights of its residents, and also apologize to their residents whose rights were violated.

“There’s nothing quite like a government Grinch crushing the spirit of Christmas,” said Keisha Russell, Associate Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “Our clients were simply exercising their constitutionally protected rights by reading a much beloved Christmas story to children when they were silenced. KMHC needs to ensure that the rights of its residents are protected and issue an apology.”