Jun 30 2006
Callifornia Steps Up Controls on Christian Schools
Fro the San Francisco Chronicle:
Two girls who were expelled by a Christian high school because the principal believed they were lesbians won the state Supreme Court’s permission to sue the school Wednesday in a case that tests the reach of California’s anti-discrimination law in a private religious academy.The court unanimously denied review of an appeal by the California Lutheran High School Association, which argued that a religious school has a constitutional right to exclude gays and lesbians. Wednesday’s action did not resolve that issue but allowed the suit to proceed toward a possible trial.
The girls, both juniors at the school in the Riverside County town of Wildomar, were expelled in September. According to their lawsuit, which was filed in December, school Principal Gregory Bork said he had learned that the students might be involved in a relationship and coerced one of them into saying she loved the other one.
In a letter to the girls’ parents, Bork said the students had violated the school’s code of conduct, which prohibits actions ‘contrary to Christian decency.’ The school is owned by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which considers homosexuality sinful.
The suit did not disclose the girls’ sexual orientation but said the school had violated California’s Unruh Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating on the basis of a person’s actual or perceived sexual orientation. The school argues that it is not a business and is thus exempt from the law. It also says its constitutional rights would override any state law.
