A New York court has chastised a school for preventing a fourth-grader from sharing her Christian faith with her classmates.
Civil liberties law firm Liberty Counsel took up the case after the Liverpool school district denied Michaela Bloodgood's request to hand out flyers she had written to her classmates.
Michaela said that with the flyers she could tell her friends "about my life and how Jesus Christ gave me a new one." The flyer included a list of things she said Jesus had done for her. She told her classmates Jesus helped her parents decide to get remarried - "and then I will get to see my Dad everyday" - and that he helped her learn to play the piano.
School officials denied her request to share these thoughts with her classmates, arguing that there was a potential for divisiveness, litter, and that students might believe the school was endorsing a religious message, according to the lawsuit.
Liberty Counsel challenged the decision contending that the school cannot totally ban literature distribution during non-instructional time without violating its students' First Amendment rights.
"Students have a right to engage in expression with one another during non-class time whether verbal or through print," founder of the Liberty Counsel, Mathew Staver, told Cybercast News Service.
"The reason the teacher denied [the request] was because the literature was religious so the [school's] policy was unconstitutional, and the reasons given by the teacher were unconstitutional, so we sought [to overturn] both and received both in the court's ruling," he said.
The district court in the northern district of New York upheld Liberty Counsel's case, saying that "none of the reasons the district articulated for denying [Michaela's] request indicate more than undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance."
"The court cannot say the danger that children would misperceive the endorsement of religion is any greater than the danger that they would perceive a hostility toward religion as a result of the district's denial of [Michaela's] request to distribute her flyers," the ruling stated.
'Major shock'
"I feel very excited and thankful to God for answering my family's prayers, and I'm very thrilled that the judge decided to rule in our favor, and I'm just very glad," Michaela, now a fifth-grader who is being home-schooled, told Cybercast News Service Tuesday.
Having won her case, Michaela said she would continue to hand out literature to try to tell others about God's love.
"Every opportunity I get I'm going to try!" she said.
Michaela's mother, Nicole Bloodgood, told Cybercast News Service that she was "surprised and disappointed that the school had refused to allow Michaela's [request] to pass things out."
"Religion plays a very large role in our lives," she said. "Sharing the gospel with people is a part of our life ... for Michaela not to be allowed to do that was a major shock."
Bloodgood said they were very sure that the school's stance was unconstitutional. Now that the case is over, "we are just thankful to God for answering our prayers about it."
"This sets a precedent for future cases that are similar to this, and it shows school districts all across the country that if something similar to this comes up, that there has already been a case that has set a precedent," she said.
"That's really wonderful news for Christians all across the country," Bloodgood added.
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