Christian Educators in Santa Rosa County Fight Back Against the ACLU

Santa Rosa County, FL – Liberty Counsel filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by the ACLU against the Santa Rosa County School District. The ACLU filed suit, claiming some of the teachers and administration endorsed religion. The School District attempted to settle the suit by joining with the ACLU and presenting the court with a Consent Order, which essentially bans all employees from engaging in prayer or religious activities, whether before, during, or after school hours. Without any legal argument or briefing, the judge signed the order, but the order is so broad that it unconstitutionally infringes on the rights of teachers, administrators, and students.

CEAI is a nonprofit religious association established in 1953. Its mission is to “serve the educational community by encouraging, equipping and empowering Christian educators serving in public and private schools.” Certain members of CEAI are employed by the Santa Rosa County School Board and are opposed to the unconstitutional Consent Order. The terms of the Consent Order violate the free speech and free exercise rights of CEAI members, both in their capacities as employees of the School Board and as private citizens. The order also forces CEAI members to infringe upon the rights of students and other third parties.

The ACLU’s Consent Order broadly defines prayer, school events, and school officials so that employees who bow their head or fold their hands, pray over meals during their lunch, or voice agreement with another’s religious discussion at any time on school property or at any school event can be found in contempt of court. When private third parties use school facilities for after-school religious events or church services, no District employee on his or her own private time may participate or communicate agreement in any prayer or religious discourse, even if he or she is attending the event voluntarily, outside of school hours.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “Neither students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate. Not only does the ACLU want to strip public school employees of their rights to free speech while working, the ACLU is now arguing that they lose their rights after work and off campus. Public school employees are not required to abandon their faith to feed their families.”

Liberty Counsel is seeking to intervene on behalf of CEAI and will argue that the Consent Order is too broad and thus unconstitutional.