Exclusive Report
It’s being hailed as good news in the unfolding battle for religious freedom: A Christian ministry has won its three-year legal struggle against an Ohio school district accused of discriminating against the faith-based group.
The Child Evangelism Fellowship of Ohio won the legal battle against the Cleveland Metropolitan School District as a federal district court approved a Consent Order finding that the school district violated CEF’s constitutional rights to equal access.
The court is requiring Cleveland Metro Schools to change its facility-use policies, and ordering it to pay $150,000 in damages and attorney’s fees.
The Child Evangelism Fellowship, or CEF, filed suit in 2013 with the backing of Liberty Counsel, seeking equal access to CMSD’s public school facilities for CEF’s after-school, Christian character education Good News Clubs.
Liberty Counsel announced the court ruling as a “major victory for equal access” on its website.
The school district was providing free after-school access to non-religious community groups, such as the Boy Scouts, but refused to treat CEF equally. Instead, the school district imposed facility fees which CEF could not pay, resulting in the shutdown of the Good News Club.
Read the entire consent order handed down by the court.
As a result of this victory, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is now required to change its policies to ensure that religious groups are not discriminated against in the future, and receive the same access and benefits to public facilities as similarly situated non-religious groups.
Child Evangelism Fellowship has been encouraging learning, spiritual growth and service to others for more than 70 years and is currently active in every state in the U.S., as well as over 183 countries. Good News Clubs worldwide are providing religious and moral education to children in 43,186 clubs.
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