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Legal firm applauds L.A. high school for decision on Christian club

A Christian legal firm has secured a victory for a student-led religious club in the Los Angeles area that wanted to use public school facilities for a gospel concert.



Administrators at the Los Angeles Unified School District high school regularly allowed school clubs to use the auditorium for events after school. However, when sponsors with the Christian Club approached officials for permission to use the auditorium for a gospel concert, they were rebuffed.

The Pacific Justice Institute intervened after being contacted by the club's sponsor -- and as PJI president Brad Dacus explains, the school reversed its policy.

"It seemed on its face to be a clear case of discrimination in that this school district in the past had allowed other outside groups to use the auditorium," Dacus says. "But the only reason they didn't want this Christian club to do it was because they were going to have something that was lifting up the Lord and proclaiming the gospel through music and a concert."

But after receiving a legal opinion letter from Dacus's group, the school granted the club full access to the auditorium -- just as it has done for other groups. "We applaud this particular administration for quickly and readily bringing their policies into compliance with federal law," he states in a press release.

Dacus explains that the law is clear in such cases. "The federal Equal Access Act clearly mandates that any public secondary school that allows non-curriculum-related clubs -- such as a Key Club or Chess Club -- to meet on campus must also allow Christians clubs to organize and meet as well, and have the same access to facilities as other clubs," he says. The school's initial reaction, says the attorney, was "clear bias" and "clear discrimination."

The PJI president says there is still a lot of misunderstanding and uncertainty in public schools regarding the Equal Access Act. Dacus encourages other schools to examine their policies to ensure they do not unfairly discriminate against student religious clubs.