The Providence Public School District (PPSD) is being sued in federal court for refusing to allow a Christian club to hold after-school meetings on school property.
According to the complaint, for two years the district has ignored multiple applications from the plaintiff, the Child Evangelism Fellowship of Rhode Island, to allow a local chapter of its Good News Club to meet at school once a week immediately after dismissal.
Plaintiff alleges that all the while PPSD has been approving applications by student groups such as the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, the Boys Club, the Girls Club, as well as the YMCA, to hold their meetings.
“The law is clear that public schools cannot discriminate against the Christian viewpoint of Good News Clubs. Equal access means equal treatment in terms of the use of the facilities, including fee waivers, time of meetings, and announcements.
“The Good News Club must be given equal treatment as the non-religious groups,” said Mat Staver, the founder, and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a Christian advocacy legal foundation representing the Child Evangelism Fellowship of Rhode Island.
Liberty Counsel cited as precedent a 2001 case, Good News Club v Milford Central School, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is a violation of the First Amendment for a school to not provide equal access and equal treatment to Christian clubs when facilities are open to secular clubs.
Staver told The Epoch Times in a March 17 phone interview that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic-inspired suspension of extracurricular activities, Good News Clubs were permitted in Providence schools.
Religious Discrimination
“When restrictions were lifted all the other clubs were allowed to resume meeting except the Good News Club,” he said.
“I believe it was because the Good News Club is a Christian club.”
Superintendent Javier Montanez is also a named defendant in the suit.
The PPSD administration did not respond to an email from The Epoch Times requesting comment.
The case was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
By Steven Kovac
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