Federal judge rules Joplin must end 'religious' field trips

[Heddi]

http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/education/2017/03/10/federal-judge-rules-joplin-must-end-religious-field-trips/99007024/

federal judge has ruled in favor of a secular group that sought to block the Joplin school district from sending children on field trips to a Christian sports complex.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool ruled Thursday the relationship between the Joplin district and Victory Ministries and Sports Complex — and, in particular, the seventh- and eighth-grade field trips and sex education programming — constituted an "impermissible entanglement of government, government funding and government authority with a particular religion and religious message in violation of the Establishment Clause."
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n the suit, the association alleged the venue was covered in religious imagery, including crosses, and the permission slip for the field trip noted children may be invited to Bible studies and local churches while at the sports complex.

“This is a victory for the Constitution,” said David Niose, legal director of the association, in a news release. “The school district has been funneling money and impressionable students to a religious ministry that is in the business of luring children to Christianity, and we’re glad that the court could see that this is clearly unconstitutional activity.”

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The association alleged that the district not only sent students to the complex for field trips but also "so-called abstinence-only sex education."
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As part of the ruling, the judge issued a "permanent injunction" to stop the district from "intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently allowing field trips to Victory or similar religious venues." The association was also awarded "nominal damages" plus attorney fees.

“The American Humanist Association warned the Joplin School District nearly two years ago of their violation of the Establishment Clause,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the association, in the release. “The school district ignored the Constitution, and we are happy that the Court delivered the correct ruling.”

[progressoid]

1. Yay!!!