School
district needs to play by rules in dealing with churches
U. S. District Court Judge
Jeffrey T. Miller’s recent ruling that San Diego Unified School District
had discriminated against Rev. James Jerpseth was no surprise to anyone familiar
with federal law. What is surprising is that San Diego Unified and other school
districts in California continue to squander taxpayer dollars by violating
the law, forcing court action to remedy these violations, and hiring expensive
lawyers to defend untenable positions.
In this case Rev. Jerpseth,
pastor of Atonement Lutheran Church in San Diego, attempted to post notices
for seminars presenting “the warning signs of trouble in a child’s
life.” In light of the then recent shootings at Santana and Granite
Hills High Schools, one would have thought San Diego City Schools would welcome
all the help it could get. Rev. Jerpseth and his church had assembled a highly
credentialed group of presenters for topics ranging from “Be a Better
Parent” to “How to Spot a Troubled Kid: Stopping the Violence.”
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According to American Center
for Law & Justice, who represented Rev. Jerpseth in the civil action,
SDUSD repeatedly refused permission to post the notices because of its policy
prohibiting posting or distribution of material containing the name of any
religious organization. In Judge Miller’s ruling granting Rev. Jerpseth’s
motion for summary judgment, the court bluntly stated that “ [this]
policy cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.”
Since every school district
in the U.S. has been apprised of the law relating to hostility toward religious
speech and with a former U. S. Attorney at the helm of SDUSD, the District
should have avoided this embarrassment and expense.
San Diego Unified is not alone
in its hostility toward free expression of Christians. One school district
was successfully sued for barring the distribution of candy canes with a religious
message. Another student successfully sued to mention the word “God”
in her graduation address.
In the Los Angeles, San Diego,
and Corona Norco Unified School Districts, officials have chosen to defend
their institution of fees for curricular and extra-curricular activities despite
clear language in the California Constitution and a 1984 decision of the California
State Supreme Court requiring that public education be free.
In 1993-1994 a coalition of
parents sued numerous school districts all over the state of California to
enjoin administration of the statewide California Learning Assessment (CLAS)
Testing Program. CLAS flagrantly violated state and federal laws relative
to psychological testing and family/student privacy rights.
Right now, in northern California,
a school district is in litigation for questioning second and fifth-grade
students regarding the sexual orientation of their family members.
While the law in these matters
is clear, lawyers continue to defend the indefensible for public school administrators
and boards who have access to the deep pockets of the California taxpayer.
But will that continue to be the case? Both the handwringing Cassandra’s
and those with legitimate concerns about California’s huge budget deficit
and cuts in education funding could breathe a little easier if the hierarchy
of public education would simply follow the law, avoiding legal action and
expenses.
The hundreds of thousands,
if not millions, of dollars spent by these districts on lawyers and court
fees should be used instead to fund academic needs in districts throughout
California. San Diego Unified should lead the way by dropping its appeal of
the Jerpseth case.
Gary G. Kreep is a co-founder
and executive director of United States Justice Foundation, headquartered
in Escondido, a not for profit, conservative legal action foundation that
has been active in the fight for parental rights in public education for over
20 years. USJF may be contacted at usjf@usjf.net or http://www.usjf.net
Leigh Hughes is director
of communications for Concerned Women for America (CWA)-San Diego/Imperial
Counties. CWA is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.
cwaofca@zol.com