ADF: School district's efforts to make alternative pre-school site safe should be commended, not condemned

ADF letter assures Iowa school district that U.S. Constitution does not require it to neglect safety, handicap needs of students

ADF attorney sound bites (8/26/11):  David Cortman  |  Jeremy Tedesco

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The Alliance Defense Fund sent a letter this week to Cedar Falls Community School District to discount an atheist group’s claim that the district cannot make safety and handicap-accessibility renovations to a nearby church property so that it can use the facilities to accommodate overcrowding for its pre-school program and meet city codes. ADF contends that adding handicap-accessible restrooms and installing emergency exits at the district’s alternative site for pre-school students in no way violates the U.S. Constitution.

“School districts shouldn’t be forced to deny services to children simply because groups hostile to religion misrepresent the Constitution,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “It is astounding that the Freedom From Religion Foundation cares more about furthering its distorted view of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause than making sure that school children are safe and that handicap children’s needs are met.”

Due to overcrowding and lack of public school campus space, Cedar Falls Community School District relocated part of its preschool program to nearby Kaio Church. The location allows students easy access to Southdale Elementary School’s food service, transportation, and playground equipment. In order to bring the interior of the facility into compliance with city codes, the school district must make a few modifications, including the conversion of a janitor’s closet into a handicap-accessible restroom, the addition of two pre-school handicap-accessible restrooms, and the installation of two emergency exits in the designated classroom spaces.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the district erroneously claiming that spending district funds to renovate the pre-school facilities at the church violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

“FFRF’s objections to the District’s decision to use the Kaio Church to house part of its pre-school program and to expend District funds to bring the Church’s facilities into compliance with city codes are driven by its distorted view of the Establishment Clause, not by what that Clause actually requires,” the ADF letter explains. “FFRF believes that the Establishment Clause requires absolute separation between church and state. But as the Sixth Circuit recently held, this phrase is an ‘extra-constitutional construct’ that has ‘grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state….’ The District need not, and should not, follow FFRF’s warped view of what the Establishment Clause requires.”

“Modifying physical space at a church to make it safe and handicap-accessible for students does not translate into the advancement of religion,” said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. “It strains credulity to claim that a church can co-opt handicap-accessible bathrooms and emergency exits for the purpose of promoting its religious beliefs. The courts have upheld such non-religious, ‘cosmetic repairs’ as posing no constitutional problem.”

• Pronunciation guide: Tedesco (Tuh-DESS’-ko), Kaio (KY’-oh)