'Intolerance': College fights back after school district bans student teachers over Christian views

By Billy Hallowell, Contributor Monday, March 20, 2023

Arizona Christian University has filed a lawsuit against Washington Elementary School District, a public school district in Arizona, over alleged religious discrimination.

The district, which had long partnered with ACU, recently made the decision to ban student teachers from its classrooms over the college's biblical views on marriage, despite a positive experience with the school.

Now, ACU is fighting back, filing a complaint through the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Christian Post reporter Leonardo Blair joins this week's show to explain the legal battle and the religious freedom concerns at the center of it. Blair discussed the "level of intolerance" observed during the school board meeting when the decision was made.

"The most alarming or shocking part of this meeting was that, despite the recommendation of the staff of the district who are the on-the-ground players in this, the LGBT ... agenda-driven board, they decided that it was just not safe," he said. "These student teachers have been in the classroom for 11 years without incident. And they decided that they just could not trust the student teachers not the be biased when they haven't had any sort of incident in the classroom before."

Here's more from the complaint: "This civil rights action seeks to protect a Christian university and its students' fundamental rights to religious exercise and speech and to be free from unlawful governmental discrimination simply because of their religious status and beliefs."

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