Family News in Focus from Focus on the Family is the only place I’ve seen this story reported:
The largest public school district in Wisconsin has removed its cap on the number of students who can attend after-school Good News Clubs and has agreed to distribute permission slips in the same manner permitted other secular groups. Milwaukee Public Schools initially capped a club at 25. The Christian club was also not permitted to meet until one hour after the end of the school day, unlike other clubs that could meet immediately after school.
Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel which represented the student group, said it’s astounding the lengths to which school officials will go to discriminate against Christians. “The only rationale for such discrimination is unfounded ignorance of the law or animus to the Christian message,” he said. “Either way, such discrimination is unconstitutional and can no longer be tolerated. Good News Clubs are good for kids.”
Wisconsin has not had a good year for religious liberty at schools. InterVarsity at UW-Superior. Roman Catholics at UW-Madison. Now this?
There can be no logical justification for capping the number of students in an after school club. MPS would never say that the local Girl Scouts group could only have 25 members. Nor would it require the Girl Scouts to wait an hour after school. Anyone who has been part of a club knows that such a wait-an-hour requirement would have a tremendous negative impact on attendance.
In Good News Club v. Milford Central School (2001), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled:
his case presents two questions. The first question is whether Milford Central School violated the free speech rights of the Good News Club when it excluded the Club from meeting after hours at the school. The second question is whether any such violation is justified by Milford’s concern that permitting the Club’s activities would violate the Establishment Clause. We conclude that Milford’s restriction violates the Club’s free speech rights and that no Establishment Clause concern justifies that violation.
Matt Staver from Liberty Counsel is right. Good News Clubs are good for kids. What does a GNC do? According to the national sponsor, Child Evangelism Fellowship:
Boys and girls ages 5 through 12 gather with their friends to sing interesting visualized songs. They enjoy playing games that help them memorize a verse from God’s Word. Through the missionary time they learn of children around the world who are following Jesus. The visualized Bible story applies God’s Word to what is happening in their lives. They play review games that help them remember what was taught. An opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as Savior is given. Activities that help them grow in Christ are presented.
What did the bureaucrats at MPS not like about that?
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Daniel, I wouldn’t be too surprised that this happened with MPS. Remember, these are the same bureaucrats who banned Legos since they encouraged discrimination and exclusion and were considered an instrument of the capitalist power structure.
http://www.620wtmj.com/_conten.....ntry=29864
I wish I were making this up, but I’d have to smoke a lot of green stuff to get to that conclusion.
From the Banning Legos article:
they describe how some kids hoarded the “best” pieces, denied their classmates any access at all to the pretend town they were building, and displayed other undesirable behavior surrounding ownership and the social power it conveys.
Hoarding of resources, denying access, undesirable use of power? That sounds like the behavior local school boards use to prevent charter schools from forming.