School to church: Actually, no. We don't do that for anyone, not even clubs like YMCA or Boys and Girls Club. We have a perfectly fair compromise by putting out this here community table, where you can leave information and people can pick it up if they choose.
Church: Discrimination, I say!
It's a bad week for churches in the press. This week's religijerk, the Child Evangelism Fellowship Suncoast Chapter, has recruited help in making a group of Florida elementary schools send home material advertising after school Bible study programs. The school is balking, and refers to a long-enforced policy in which they do not send material home unless it is for another government agency. It's a sound policy, and should keep them safe from idiocy like this.
In a letter to district officials, Liberty Counsel lawyer David M. Corry demanded "immediate approval" of the fellowship's fliers in the methods regularly available to nonreligious groups. He also demanded changes to the "unconstitutional district policy" that he said banned wider distribution of the fliers.
"Equal access means equal treatment," Corry wrote. "Discrimination in any form between secular and religious organization messages is unconstitutional."
He's correct in theory. His mistake is that the school doesn't endorse any activities, so there is no discrimination. The school is treating them like others of their kind, which is the exact opposite of what he is claiming.
The district rejects similar appeals from such groups as the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs, she said. Instead, schools provide community tables, where organizations may leave pamphlets, brochures and fliers for students and parents to pick up if they wish. Those tables generally are in school offices.
"We are very uniform in the application of that policy," Romagnoli said.
A representative of the Boys and Girls Club of West Pasco confirmed that practice.
Rogers acknowledged that schools have let his group place information in the office. But he'd like to be able to spread the word about the club, which has operated at Richey, Cypress, Connerton and Chasco elementary schools, to more people than those who stop to grab a flier.
It's not discrimination that he "would like" to have more exposure than he can get. So why get the legal strong arm out? The school is in the right. This policy was planned carefully to make sure they could not be accused in any way of endorsing one activity over another, while giving kids access to worthwhile programs they are interested in. They gave this same privilege to the CEFSC. This group has no right to ask for special rights and then go crazy and try to force it when denied their request. His overreaction is in direct conflict with the facts, which tell an entirely different story.
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