Calif. schools want to defend right to Christian conduct policy

Calif. schools want to defend right to Christian conduct policy

A private religious school in California plans to petition to a state appeals court, after a judge's denial of a motion to intervene by a faith-based organization that was seeking to step into a case concerning the rights of a religious school to hold students to the standards of their beliefs.

California Superior Court Judge Gloria Trask ruled that the Association of Faith-Based Organizations did not have a sufficient legal interest to become parties in the case. The AFBO was trying to intervene on behalf of California Lutheran High School, which is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the parents of two students who were suspended in 2005 for allegedly engaging in homosexual behavior in violation of the school's code of conduct.

Christian Legal Society counsel Tim Tracey, who helped argue the motion, says the parents claim the school violated state anti-discrimination law, and discriminated against the girls on the basis of sexual orientation. "They're suing the school for damages, as well as injunctive relief, to prevent them from expelling students on the basis of sexual orientation in the future," he explains.

Tracey says what California Lutheran did was no different than what any other private religious school would do if students violated its previously agreed-to faith-based code of conduct.

"The thing to keep in mind, here, is that private Christian schools have a right to agree with their Christian beliefs and live according to those beliefs," says Tracey. "And if this case goes the wrong way, that's going to mean that private religious schools in California can no longer say [they] want students to live consistent with the Christian beliefs that they're professing."

And that is a right that other Christian schools in Riverside County feel they have an interest in and tried to protect by becoming intervening parties in the case with the AFBO motion. But after the judge's denial, they will have to try again on appeal.