Settlement clears way for EV religious meetings

Students once prohibited from using a public meeting room at East Valley High School for religious purposes can do so as part of an out-of-court settlement reached with the school board.

“They recognized they can’t discriminate against Christians on public high school campuses,” said Greg Scott, spokesman for the Alliance Defense Fund, which filed suit on behalf of 17-year-old junior Ashley LaSayette, of Newman Lake. “It’s really that simple.”

With the settlement in hand, the group withdrew its lawsuit against the district last week.

District spokeswoman Judi Christianson said she was unaware of the development and declined comment.

Scott’s group filed suit March 12 in U.S District Court, accusing East Valley School District Superintendent Debra Howard and high school Principal Jeff Miller of violating the rights of Christian students after Miller prohibited LaSayette and four other students from gathering for religious discussion and prayer in a room where other students were allowed to meet for nonreligious purposes.

The lawsuit sought damages of $1 – LaSayette said she simply wanted her rights respected.

“All we were looking for were our rights, and we thank the school for giving them back to us,” she said. She plans to restart the meetings in the fall.

Less than a week after the lawsuit was filed, the district’s lawyer informed the Alliance Defense Fund that the students were free to start meeting again, according to the motion for dismissal filed Thursday. The East Valley School Board changed its policy May 13 to emphasize that while school-sponsored religious programs and services are prohibited, private religious speech is not, according to the agreement.

Minutes from the meeting show the board unanimously approved a revision to its policy on religious gatherings at schools, but Christianson said she wasn’t at the meeting and didn’t know anything about it.

A phone call to school board President Kerri Lunstroth was not returned.

LaSayette started weekly meetings in December in a room the school designates for student use three days a week during lunch, according to the suit.

Other student groups met in the room at the same time to eat lunch, study and talk, according to the lawsuit.

LaSayette said they talked about their beliefs and – like other student groups – about classmates, teachers and administrators.

The lawsuit alleged that when a student complained about the group, Miller told the students they could no longer meet in the room or anywhere else at the school. He repeated the prohibition to LaSayette and her parents on several occasions, according to the suit.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation out there” about religion in schools, Scott said. “Sometimes it does take a federal lawsuit to make things constitutionally correct, and that’s what happened here.”

In 2001, the U.S Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the case Good News Club et al. v. Milford Central School that the New York school district violated the free speech rights of the organizers of the religious club by denying them access to school facilities used by other groups for similar purposes.

LaSayette said she decided to contact the Alliance Defense Fund after hearing of the organization from her church youth group leader.

She said she’s pleased with the outcome and looks forward to restarting the group next year.

“I definitely want to get a group together and just pray for our school,” she sad. “That was the whole point.”