Liberty Counsel has filed yet another lawsuit, this time in California, against a district for "unlawfully denying" a Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) Good News Club access to school facilities – even though that club previously had been allowed to meet on campus.
Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver explains that the Good News Club was using Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) facilities on an equal basis with other similar non-religious organizations – but then COVID hit.
"And all the clubs were shut down," he tells AFN. "After the restrictions were lifted, the schools began to allow clubs – mostly secular clubs – back on campus. [But] they used that as an opportunity to specifically deny Christian clubs, particularly the Good News Clubs."
Staver's group sent a series of demand letters to OUSD, the superintendent, and the school board. "They completely ignored them and never responded," according to Liberty Counsel.
Staver: "We filed suits since the demand letters did not work. This is going to be an expensive decision, a costly one for the school district, because they will not win this case."
Staver says his organization has won at least 200 similar cases nationally – yet secular schools still try and bar CEF from using their facilities.