PHOENIX (AP) — A group of Christian attorneys have filed a lawsuit against the Dysart Unified School District in federal court for prohibiting fliers for a Christian club.
The suit was filed Thursday by the Alliance Defense Fund.
It alleges the district prohibited the Phoenix chapter of the Child Evangelism Fellowship from distributing a flier and permission slip for after-school meetings at West Point Elementary in Surprise.
According to the fliers, the Good News Club is a free, weekly after-school program in which students in grades kindergarten through sixth grade can study the Bible and pray.
The district rejected the flier on the grounds that it was against district policy that prohibits the distribution of literature of a religious nature on school property.
Dave Miller posted at 12:49 pm on Wed, Feb 1, 2012.
Althought the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of school districts to rent space to religious groups after school hours, under the finding in Good News Club vs. Milford Central School District (2001), the individual school has an obligation to keep separate the activities of these groups from its regular activities. In other words, the school should not be a party to any promotion of these after-school clubs which have as a goal recruiting elementary school children into their brand of religion.