With the help of a pro-bono law firm, a Christian student is suing her New York high school after she says her principal denied her request to start a Christian club on campus, claiming he told her a religious club was “too exclusive.”
According to this, freshman Daniela Barca said she asked the principle of Roy C. Ketcham High School in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., to approve her “OMG! Christian Club" for Christian students on campus. But after a long an arduous process – including numerous delays, three meetings with the principal and the claim that the school had temporarily “lost” the required letter of support from a faculty member – Berca said the school’s principal ultimately denied her request, allegedly telling her that the club was ‘too exclusive” because it was only marketed to Christian students.
When Daniela’s father, William Barca, pursued the matter up the line of the school district, Daren Lolkema, assistant superintendent for Compliance and Information Systems for the Wappingers Central School District, allegedlyinformed him that the school district could not support a religious club that is not “completely unbiased to any and all religions.”
Attorneys at the First Liberty Institute say the school is violating Berca’s and other Christian students’ First Amendment rights by denying them the right to gather and celebrate their faith. In a letter sent to the Wappingers Central School District on Wednesday, the law firm also notes the school has roughly two dozen other on-campus groups, including a “Pride Club” group for gay students and LGBTQ advocates, claiming that the school has already opened the door to allowing “exclusive” groups on campus and can therefore not discriminate against Christian clubs.
“[T]here is reason to believe this violation is systematic, leading to years of disregard for the Equal Access Act. Once a public school such as Ketcham High School creates a limited open forum for student clubs, it cannot deny equal access to student groups on the basis of the religious content or viewpoint of the students’ speech. Yet, it has explicitly done so,” First Liberty Institute counsel Keisha Russell wrote.
"This matter is not one for reasonable dispute: Wappingers Central School District officials have repeatedly broken long-standing, clearly established federal law,” she added.
The letter states that attorneys expect the school to begin allowing Barca’s club to begin meeting no later than Jan. 2, 2020.
District Superintendent Jose Carrion told the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday that the “district recognizes the rights of student-initiated, noncurricular groups to organize and meet in accordance with the Equal Access Act,” saying school administrators “fully anticipate that this matter will be resolved as per the Equal Access Act.”