Moline-Coal Valley School District in Illinois agreed in a federal court settlement this week to lift restrictions on Child Evangelism Fellowship’s Good News Clubs. The district will give the after-school Bible clubs the same facility access as comparable nonreligious groups, including the Boy Scouts and Girls on the Run. It also agreed to pay $105,351.25 in attorney fees, costs and damages.
Child Evangelism Fellowship sued the district in February. The group alleged that the district charged discriminatory facility-use fees, blocked the clubs from distributing literature for students to take home to parents, and barred them from Backpack Nights. Good News Clubs meet after school in public elementary schools and require parental permission for children to attend.
The settlement follows a clear national rule. In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Good News Club v. Milford Central School that public schools cannot exclude Good News Clubs from school property after hours simply because the clubs are religious. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, which represented Child Evangelism Fellowship, said, “The First Amendment prohibits public schools from discriminating against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities.”
Public schools do not have to sponsor religious speech. But when they open facilities to outside groups, they may not treat a Christian club as second-class because of its message. The settlement protects religious liberty for families and students, and it reminds school districts across the country that equal access means equal access for Christian ministries too.
