PORTLAND (AP) - A Marshall High School senior who claimed he was discriminated against after administrators removed a display of items from his Bible club has sued the Portland School District.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, was prepared by the American Center for Law & Justice, which two weeks ago sued the Gresham-Barlow School District for preventing a 6-year-old boy from distributing a Jesus-themed Christmas card at a school party in December.
The lawsuit was filed by Jeff Chatterton, 17. It alleges that in early December, Marshall allowed Chatterton, a leader in Teens Encountering Christ, to put club items - a Bible, religious books, quotes from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. among other things - in a school display case. But the material was removed within days, the lawsuit said, because school officials said it sanctioned religion.
Marshall Principal John Wilhelmi said Monday he received complaints from several teachers about the religious club display. He decided to remove it, he said, after consulting with the district's lawyer, Jollee Patterson.
Patterson said Wilhelmi took appropriate action, based on district policy. She said the district is in compliance with the federal Equal Access Law, which the lawsuit alleged was being violated.
The school district policy says clubs that engage in religious exercise cannot be chartered by the district, and the district and its employees cannot promote the religious activities of such clubs or spend money for their activities, other than providing a meeting space. Teens Encountering Christ doesn't meet during school hours.
Stuart J. Roth, senior counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice, said the Equal Access Act, passed in 1984, requires school districts to treat all student clubs equally, including religious clubs.
"If the school permits non-curriculum clubs to meet and have privileges, it has to give the exact same access to a religious club," he said. "This is not a complicated case."
The lawsuit alleges the school district violated Chatterton's First Amendment freedom of speech and religious exercise, and his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under the law.
The lawsuit seeks a court order to give the religious club the same privileges as other clubs, including restoring the display. It also seeks $1 in damages and reimbursement for legal costs against the district.
The center is a law firm started in 1990 by evangelist Pat Robertson to counter what he said was erosion of religious freedom. It has sued school districts for not allowing religious clubs, defended anti-abortion protesters and campaigned against pornography and same-sex marriage.
---
Information from: The Oregonian,
http://www.oregonian.com
The World welcomes your comments about stories, and we encourage a robust dialogue on this site. All comments must meet reasonable standards of decency and civility.
Please follow these basic rules:
- No defamatory comments about individuals or businesses.
- No deliberately false information.
- No obscenity or racially offensive language.
- No harassment, verbal abuse, threats or personal attacks.
- No information that invades another person's privacy.
- No business solicitations or charitable solicitations.
Comments that violate these standards will not be posted. Users with repeated violations may be banned from future posting.Comments will be approved throughout the day during business hours. After hours and weekend comments may not appear until the following business day. It may take a couple of hours before comments are approved.
The World generally does not edit comments, but we reserve the right to edit any comment that does not meet our standards.
Close Guidelines