California's largest school district has agreed to allow a Christian club at one of its schools to advertise during the school’s weekly webinar after receiving a demand letter from a religious liberty legal organization warning it against “viewpoint discrimination.” 

In a statement provided to The Christian Post last Friday, the law firm Liberty Counsel said the Arts and Entertainment Virtual Academy in the Los Angeles Unified School District will now include promotional slides for the school’s Faith and Fellowship Club as part of its weekly schoolwide webinar.

While the Faith and Fellowship Club had previously been banned from promotion in the webinar, the school reversed course after receiving a demand letter from Liberty Counsel on April 17. 

According to Liberty Counsel's demand letter, a slide in the weekly webinar “promotes and urges students to ‘celebrate’ the Islamic observance of Ramadan, stating: ‘Ramadan is a holy month in Islam…the month ends with a joyful celebration called Eid al-Fitr.’"

The slides promoting Ramadan also encourage students to participate in the Islamic holiday by celebrating the event through art. 

“The exclusion of a slide announcing a Christian club (and the conspicuous absence of slides promoting Christmas and Easter and urging students to ‘celebrate’ them through art) while Ramadan is promoted to students is suggestive of viewpoint discrimination,” the letter stated. “No corresponding slides urging students to celebrate such holidays as Thanksgiving and Christmas (legal, United States federal holidays) or Easter (not a federal holiday) were found in the AEVA special announcements slides.”

The letter also accuses the school of engaging in viewpoint discrimination by excluding the Faith and Fellowship Club from a master list of extracurricular activities available to students. It concluded by requesting that the Los Angeles Unified School District allow the Faith and Fellowship Club to include a commercial in the weekly webinar and highlight the club on the master list of extracurricular activities. 

In a letter to Liberty Counsel dated April 23, the Los Angeles Unified School District differentiated the Faith and Fellowship Club from other extracurricular activities at the school by identifying it as “the only student-led club at this school,” in contrast to the “school-led afterschool enrichment programs” highlighted in the weekly webinar.

The school district added that the principal of the Arts and Entertainment Virtual Academy “has agreed to allow the Faith and Fellowship Club’s proposed message to be included in Monday’s Weekly Webinar.”

The school district also claimed that concerns about “viewpoint discrimination” expressed in Liberty Counsel's letter were “misplaced” because “the District and its schools highlight a variety of commemorative events throughout each school year.”

The school district's response letter added that the Arts and Entertainment Virtual Academy previously featured several "religions and religious traditions, as well as nonsecular selections" as part of its winter program. 

“We commend the Los Angeles Unified School District for ensuring equal access for the Faith and Fellowship Club at the Arts and Entertainment Virtual Academy,” said Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver. “The First Amendment and the Equal Access Act do not allow for excluding a Christian club in a forum where other non-curricular programs and other viewpoints are permitted.” 

In its statement last Friday, Liberty Counsel added, “As a result of the recently allowed promotional placements, Faith and Fellowship Club’s student leader reported that student participation doubled at the very next meeting.” 

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/la-school-district-agrees-to-give-christian-group-equal-access.html