ADF's Lawsuit Claims High School...

ADF's Lawsuit Claims High School Censored Christian Club's Viewpoint

By Jim Brown
April 26, 2006

(AgapePress) - A suburban Philadelphia public school district is being sued for allegedly imposing an "extreme" amount of censorship on Christians students. For example, the lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) accuses the Downingtown Area School District of forcing the campus "Bible Club" to meet as the "Downingtown Prayer Club" instead.

School officials also allegedly would not approve a poster promoting a "See You at the Pole" prayer event until the student group removed a Bible verse, a cross, and all mention of God from the poster. ADF-affiliated attorney Randall Wenger says the school has what he describes as a "totalitarian" speech policy in place.

Wenger says the students at Downingtown High School East Campus could actually run into disciplinary procedures for all kinds of things they have been doing as part of their regular Prayer Club activities. "If they talk about homosexuality, they could potentially get into problems," he says. "In fact, there is part of the speech code that basically equates expressing a religious viewpoint with expressing obscenity."

Christian students should have the right to express their beliefs just like everyone else in America, the Pennsylvania pro-family activist insists. "They shouldn't be muzzled because they want to speak from a religious viewpoint," he asserts, "and they shouldn't be muzzled in their ability to express their love for God, to talk about God, to quote Bible versus, or even, of all things, to put a cross on a poster."

According to the ADF's complaint, the school district's policy of lumping religious points of view and profanity into the same category of prohibited speech is unconstitutional. Wenger goes further, calling the school's policy "outlandish" and saying, "if this weren't such a serious offense, you'd think it was a joke."

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States "absolutely guarantees" the right of students to hold and express their viewpoints, the pro-family attorney points out, and that includes their religious viewpoints. Nevertheless, he notes, "on campuses across the nation, Christian students are facing harassment by school administrators who use their position as a bully pulpit."

The Alliance Defense Fund filed a complaint in the case of Downingtown Prayer Club v. Downingtown Area School District in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Attorneys with the ADF are seeking a preliminary injunction to defend the First Amendment rights of the Christian students.

Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.