Christian event fliers no longer grounded at Ohio school, but everyone's wings clipped

CLEVELAND — Alliance Defense Fund attorneys have successfully secured a settlement on behalf of several members of a “moms group” whose fliers inviting 4th- and 5th-graders to an “After-School Christmas Story Hour” were prohibited at Garfield Heights schools while fliers from other community groups were allowed.

After ADF filed suit against the Garfield Heights Board of Education in April, the board agreed to change several policies and stop the strict ban on religious fliers.  However, rather than allow the religious fliers to be sent home with students as ADF specifically requested, the board chose to no longer allow any outside community groups to distribute fliers in classrooms. Instead, all groups are restricted to placing limited quantities (25 per group) in the school office, which students rarely visit voluntarily.

“Christian community members shouldn’t have their free speech discriminated against on public school campuses. The board has done the right thing in rectifying that particular legal problem, but it’s thoroughly disappointing to see them needlessly gut the flier program so that no group’s invitations are communicated effectively,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman.

The principal of Maple Leaf Intermediate School had informed the moms group that a new district policy banned religious fliers, including the flier and parental permission slip for the “After School Christmas Story Hour” being held at a church down the street.  Superintendent Linda Reid later backed the denial, inappropriately citing the so-called “laws of separation between church and state.”

After the moms group sent e-mails to school officials in January questioning the new flier policy, the district superintendent admitted that fliers for a Halloween party, a soccer program, Boy Scouts, and an American Heart Association event were allowed to be handed out in classrooms, but insisted that fliers with religious content were strictly prohibited. She told the group that it could instead place its fliers in the school’s office for students to pick up--a restriction that applied to no other community groups at the time.

Kurt D. Anderson of Elyria, one of more than 2,000 attorneys in the ADF alliance, is serving as local counsel in the lawsuit, Michalek v. Garfield Heights Board of Education. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, issued a dismissal order last month in light of the settlement.