City agrees to entry of court order

City agrees to entry of court order requiring first amendment training for employees

San Diego, CA – A federal court in San Diego entered a consent decree on Tuesday on behalf of six young girls and their dance instructor. They were told by City of Chula Vista officials last December that they could not perform their dance routine at the Chula Vista Holiday Festival because of the Christian message on their t-shirts and the Christian theme of their music.

The City agreed to entry of the consent decree which requires it to provide First Amendment training on an annual basis to its police officers and all City employees who are classified as mid-managers and above. The consent decree also requires the City to pay a total of Thirty One Thousand Dollars ($31,000). The court declared that the girls’ rights under the Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause, Free Speech Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause were violated.

The six girls, ranging in age from eight to twelve years old at the time of last year's Holiday Festival, are part of a Christian hip hop dance troupe called the “Jesus Christ Dancers”. The girls arrived for their performance at the Festival wearing black t-shirts bearing a silver cross and the words “Jesus Christ Dancer” on the front. A recreation supervisor for the City told the dance troupe that they could not perform because of their t-shirts and Christian themed music.

The Center for Law & Policy (CLP) represented the girls and their dance instructor against the City. CLP senior trial attorney, Brian Fahling said, “this [consent decree] is an appropriate and very good result. The City is to be commended for stepping forward and acknowledging it violated the girls’ constitutional rights.” Fahling also noted, “The girls had a great civics lesson in all of this—they learned that asserting their constitutional rights benefits, not just them, but all of us.”