Oakland school leaders said they are ‘not in support of Evangelism on our campus’ and ‘cannot have [Bible] clubs’ in their schools, the lawsuit says.
A California nonprofit that provides after-school Christian teaching and leadership training to Bay Area elementary students is suing the Oakland school district, accusing its leaders of religious discrimination for denying the group access to school facilities.
Oakland school leaders told the Christian group that it couldn’t provide after-school programming in part because they are “not in support of Evangelism on our campus” and they “cannot have [Bible] clubs” in their schools, according to the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court, Child Evangelism Fellowship NorCal East claims that leaders of the Oakland Unified School District violated its First and 14th Amendment rights by denying its Good News Clubs access to school facilities, while at the same time allowing secular after-school groups on campus.
The nonprofit is being represented the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a litigation, education, and public policy ministry.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities,” Mat Staver, the Liberty Counsel’s founder and chairman, said in a prepared statement.
“Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a biblically based education that includes moral and character development,” Staver said. “Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school and that includes these Oakland schools.”
The Supreme Court has already ruled in favor of the group, finding in 2001’s Good News Club v. Milford Central School that public schools must provide equal access and treatment to after-school Christian clubs when the schools are open to secular clubs.
Reached via email on Thursday, an Oakland Unified spokesman told National Review that the district does not comment on pending legal matters.
Good News Clubs are active in more than 3,000 U.S. elementary schools, according to the lawsuit. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 30 of them were operating after school on East Bay campuses.
In the spring of 2020, during the early months of the pandemic, the Oakland school district temporarily canceled all clubs.
However, last year, when Child Evangelism Fellowship leaders tried to resume Good News Clubs in at least seven Oakland schools, they were met with a “variety of denials,” including some specifically noting the group’s Christian identity, Liberty Counsel said.
Lincoln Elementary School principal Mukta Sambrani initially told the fellowship’s director that school officials “do not think that Good News Club is a match for Lincoln Elementary School,” denying its request to operate on campus, the lawsuit said. Sambrani later clarified that “teacher leadership at Lincoln” is “not in support of Evangelism on our campus.”
Among the after-school groups that do have access to the Lincoln campus is the East Bay Asian Youth Center, a nonprofit that provides life skills to children in low-income neighborhoods with significant Asian youth populations.
Greenleaf Elementary School similarly denied the fellowship access to its campus, with the school’s after-school program provider stating that “I just got confirmation from my supervisor that we cannot have any [Bible] clubs at school. Sorry,” the lawsuit says.
Among the after-school groups with access to Greenleaf’s campus is the Rainbow Club, which provides fun activities and support to gender-expansive elementary students.
Other Oakland schools denied the fellowship access to their campuses, claiming that they didn’t have enough space or simply refusing to provide an explanation.
Other secular groups that have access to Oakland Unified schools include: Girls Inc. of Alameda County, Girls on the Run, the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, Oakland Kids First, YMCA of the East Bay, and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the lawsuit says.
Liberty Counsel lawyers say that by denying Good News Clubs on campus, Oakland Unified leaders are violating the First Amendment’s free-speech, free-exercise, and establishment clauses; the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause; as well as state law and school board policy.
The Equal Access Act of 1984, which isn’t mentioned in the lawsuit, prohibits federally funded public schools from denying students the right to meet in groups because of the “religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.”
The Supreme Court has ruled for decades that public schools can’t discriminate against religion, including in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 ruling that a Washington State school district couldn’t bar a football coach from praying with players on the field after games.
Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that San Jose public schools illegally discriminated against the Fellowship of Christian Athletes by not allowing it to be an official student group because it denied leadership positions to LGBTQ students and their supporters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
The lawsuit against the Oakland Unified comes while the district is facing down a massive $95 million budget shortfall and is considering consolidating ten schools into five. Oakland had about 34,000 students enrolled last year, down from about 50,000 students 20 years earlier, according to local media.