Other groups were allowed to hold after-school activities at school facilities, according to the complaints.
A permanent injunction is being sought against the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) in Northern California, as Christian clubs allegedly denied access to public school facilities for after-school activities.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Children’s Evangelion Fellowship Norcal East Bay (CEF), argued their case February 27th in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
According to the complaint, the district has allowed CEF’s Good News Club on campus prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the filing, in early 2020, OUSD banned all clubs at the start of the pandemic. By the spring of 2023, the district had started to allow after-school clubs again.
Many applications by Christian groups to resume school activities have been reportedly either stone walled or denied for a variety of reasons.
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According to the complaint, a school official at an elementary school said, “I don’t think the Good News Club is a game,” and “we don’t support evangelism on campus.”
The refusal was also given by managers who claimed there was no space available. The complaint alleges that other secular groups were allowed to hold after-school activities at these schools.
The district is allegedly violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Equality Protection Clause of Section 14, and the Free Statement, Establishment, and Free Movement Clauses of California law.
The plaintiffs are represented by Free Advisors, a national nonprofit litigation agency that deals with religious freedom, life and family law cases.
Matthew Stabber, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. Courtesy of Liberty Advisor
The Oakland Unified School District did not respond to requests for comment.
Supreme Court decision
“The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian perspectives regarding the use of school facilities,” Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement.
Staver cited the 2001 Supreme Court decision of Good News Club vs. Milford Central School.
Writing for a majority of 6-3, then Judge Clarence Thomas said, “Milford’s restrictions violate the club’s right to free speech, and concerns about the establishment clause do not justify that violation.”
“When Milford denied access to the Good News Club to the school’s limited public forum on the ground that the club was inherently religious, he discriminated against the club because of its religious perspective in violation of the First Amendment’s free speech clause,” Thomas wrote.
According to Liberty Counsel, the organization represents CEF in about 200 cases across the United States, and “we have never lost any incidents, including Good News Clubs.”
