Prayer Finds an Opening in L.A. School

The gathering opened with a prayer and a song: “Good news, good news, Christ died for me.”

Next, the cheerful group leader, Nancy Thomason, director of the San Fernando Valley chapter of the Child Evangelism Fellowship, displayed a multicolored Dr. Seuss-style floppy top hat. In a soothing tone, she explained to the group of 25 children that each colored stripe on the hat had religious meaning. Black represents sin. Red is Jesus’ blood. White means clean from sin. Green represents new life from God. Gold is heaven.

They went on to recite verses of the Bible and pray some more.

This was not Sunday school or a church service but a public school. The young worshipers, who gathered on a recent afternoon at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Chase Street Elementary School in Panorama City, are members of the Good News Club, a Christian group for kids that has been winning free-speech battles against school districts across the country.

“How come we have a Good News Club at this school?” Thomason asked the students.

“To talk about God,” one child answered.

“Can I have any group I want on a school campus?” Thomason asked.

The children nodded.

The organization, which has members nationwide, recently won a federal lawsuit against the Los Angeles district, allowing its members free use of campus facilities for after-school meetings.

The district allows student-run clubs and Boy and Girl Scouts to meet on campus after school without paying fees. It requires other groups, such as churches and community or corporate organizations, to pay fees to cover the costs of school maintenance during the meetings, according to a district lawyer, Adrienne Konigar.

But U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow in Los Angeles ruled in August that such fees discriminate against the religious organization and violate the 1st Amendment.

Similar debates over the group’s rights have erupted across the country.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that schools may not bar the Good News Club and other religious groups from meeting on public school campuses. The decision, which emphasized free speech, overturned a prohibition by schools in Milford, N.Y.

“We’ve had mixed feelings across the nation,” said Myron Tschetter, vice president of USA Ministries for the Child Evangelism Fellowship.

“For the most part we’ve had all kinds of principals say this is great because it has changed the attitudes of children in schools,” he added. “Some of those who are against the club just don’t want anything religious in their schools, and that’s a personal preference of the principal or superintendent.”

Mathew Staver, lawyer for the club, said many school districts mistakenly believe that allowing a religious group to meet on school grounds is unconstitutional. But public schools, he said, cannot choose which groups they allow access.

He said that imposing uneven fee requirements, or “anything that sets up barriers, is also a form of discrimination, although it is not as blatant as a total ban on activities.”

L.A. Unified has filed an appeal. The district, Konigar said, believes its fee did not violate the Constitution. “The district wants to make sure we treat all clubs fairly,” she said.

There are 40 after-school Good News Clubs on campuses in California, and 286 across the country. The group at Chase Elementary, which began this fall with about 50 members, is the first in L.A. Unified. It meets Tuesdays for about 90 minutes after school. A second club recently began at Chatsworth Park Elementary School.

Staver said the group prefers to convene on school campuses because they are safe, accessible to children and easier for parents who don’t have to deal with extra transportation problems.

Diana Villafana, principal of Chase, said she welcomes the club on her campus because students have a good time in a loving environment.

“As long as parents are giving their consent, to me that’s critical,” she said. “The school and school district are not promoting this as a part of them; it’s separate.”

Ciera Shelton, 10, said she likes the Good News Club. “Some people prayed so the Good News Club could go on, so they wouldn’t have to pay. That’s good because kids need to learn about God,” she said.

Fatima Garcia of Panorama City has enrolled her daughter Michelle, 10, and her son Michael, 7, in the club at Chase and both enjoy it. “I love it too that they are learning about the Bible and about God,” she said.

Debra Stevens, parent of an eighth-grader named Sara who attends the Good News Club at Emerald Middle School in El Cajon, said her daughter “has gotten a lot out of the program because she has learned about the Lord.”

Sara said the club is a place where “we can be kids.”

“A lot of kids are doing drugs and doing a lot of bad stuff,” she said. “It is another chance so we can stay out of trouble.”

Still, some critics say the club uses aggressive recruitment tactics and should not be allowed on public school campuses.

“In some locations, you have to wonder whether they’re really holding church services,” said Julie Underwood, general counsel for the National School Boards Assn. who worked on the Supreme Court case. “You have to realize they aren’t quite like the Girl Scouts.”

Robert Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the club teaches sophisticated theological concepts to youngsters, and parents often mistakenly see it as just a carefree place for after school.

“It’s not just a nonsecular group featuring juice and cookies and puppets,” Boston said.

But Thomason said children of all faiths are welcome, and every participant must submit a permission slip from parents.

She said the group has been unfairly targeted.

“Why don’t they like us? I don’t know. Maybe they don’t like Christ. Maybe they are thinking ‘What are you doing to the minds of children?’ ” Thomason said. “We are just letting [children] know there is someone there who constantly loves them and is constantly there for them.”

At Chase on a recent afternoon, a Good News leader, Colleen Ishimaru, used colorful cartoon figures to help tell Bible stories to nearly 25 students.

She went on to say, in a motherly tone, that Christian beliefs can have their costs: “Sometimes, when you are at school, the park or the playground, people know you go to church, or they know you go to the Good News Club ... and you know what? They make fun of you.

“There are even people in my own family who don’t want to talk to me or have anything to do with me because I follow God.”