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Cleveland, OH–Liberty Counsel filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) against Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Principal Chantelle Lewis. CEF’s Good News Club, a religious, after-school club, is seeking access to the school facilities after the District insisted on charging the club a discriminatory access fee at Miles @ Cranwood Elementary School.

During the 2011/2012 school year, CEF maintained a Good News Club at Miles @ Cranwood Elementary School without being assessed any facility-use fees. However, last year, the District began charging CEF $69.50 per hour, and the club had to close. Although the school board states that every community group is required to pay the fee to use the facility, the Boy Scouts of America, another character-building youth club, is conducting after-school meetings at Miles @ Cranwood Elementary School free of charge.

A federal court in Child Evangelism Fellowship of San Fernando Valley v. Los Angeles Unified School District ruled that a public school may not charge discriminatory fees to religious clubs. Liberty Counsel represented CEF in that case. The Supreme Court held in Good News Club v. Milford, “Speech discussing otherwise permissible subjects cannot be excluded from a limited public forum on the grounds that the subject is discussed from a religious viewpoint.”

Child Evangelism Fellowship has been encouraging learning, spiritual growth, and service to others for over seventy years and is currently active in every state in the union, as well as over 183 countries. Good News Clubs worldwide is providing religious and moral education to children in 43,186 clubs. In an April 2013 CEF survey, 87.4% of principals responded that after-school Good News Clubs have been a positive experience for their school, and 52.2% reported noticeably improved behavior on the part of students who participate in the Good News Clubs.

“Good News Clubs is one of the most positive things to happen to public schools. Imposing a financial barrier based on the religious viewpoint violates the right to free speech and hurts children,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Whether the school bans a group from accessing its facilities because of its religious viewpoint or places a financial barrier on the group based on its religious viewpoint, the outcome is the same–the Constitution has been violated. Equal access means equal treatment.”

“Religious speech and people of faith are not constitutional orphans,” said Harry Mihet, Liberty Counsel’s Senior Litigation Counsel. “The Cleveland Metropolitan School District cannot treat CEF as a second-class citizen by requiring it to pay prohibitive fees to use the same public facilities at the same time and for the same activities as nonreligious groups who are granted free access.”

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
 

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