Good News Club sues Hawaii education officials for denying access in 4 school districts
The organization that oversees the Good News Clubs in public elementary schools has sued education officials in Hawaii, accusing them of unlawfully blocking their student clubs from operating in four local school districts.
Child Evangelism Fellowship of Hawaii filed a complaint on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of the District of Hawaii, alleging various education officials blocked the ministry's student clubs from operating on public school campuses.
Good News Clubs are described on the Child Evangelism Fellowship's website as ministries "designed to bring the Gospel of Christ to children on their level in their environment."
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Defendants named in the complaint include the Hawaii Department of Education and Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi; Rochelle Mahoe, superintendent of the Farrington-Kaiser-Kalani Complex Area; Linell Dilwith, superintendent of the Kaimuki-McKinley-Roosevelt Complex Area; Janette Snelling, superintendent of the Honokaa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area; and Richard Fajardo, superintendent of the Pearl City-Waipahu Complex Area.
"Defendants' policies of unequal access, pretextual denials, and hostility to CEF's religious message violate the Constitution and have denied some Hawaii elementary school students access to free, positive, and character-building Good News Clubs that enrich countless students' lives in other Hawaii schools and throughout the country," argued the suit.
The ministry alleges defendants have regularly denied CEF's requests to use public school campuses for meetings, even though comparable secular clubs are permitted to do so.
These rejections allegedly began during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Hawaii Department of Education decided in November 2021 to allow student clubs to meet again on campuses.
"By denying CEF use of HIDOE facilities on unconstitutional and specious grounds, Defendants deny CEF the ability to communicate with students on an equal basis with other similarly situated non-religious organizations, such as Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts," claimed the lawsuit.
“Defendants’ repeated denials of equal access therefore serve as a serious impediment to the operation of Good News Club’s and preclude CEF from exercising its rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver, whose law firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of CEF, said in a statement Wednesday that “Good News Clubs should be in every public elementary school and that includes in these Hawaii schools.”
“The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities. Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a biblically based education that includes moral and character development,” stated Staver.
According to the State of Hawaii Board of Education, “Public school buildings, facilities, and grounds shall be available for general recreational purposes and for public and community use whenever these activities do not interfere with the normal and usual activities of the school and its pupils as provided by law.”
According to state rules, “no available public school building, facility, or grounds shall be denied for use by the public and community on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, or disability.”
In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Good News Club v. Milford Central School that public schools could not ban the Christian student group from meeting on their property after class hours solely because the club was religious in nature.
