CEF wins major legal victory against Hawaii school officials blocking the ministry’s Good News Club®
‘This injunction is a welcomed win not only for CEF Hawaii but for all Christian groups in the public square,’ says CEF Acting Vice President of Administration Fred Pry
For Immediate Release
August 5, 2024
ST. LOUIS — A federal court has ordered the Hawaii Department of Education and six individual elementary schools to allow Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) after-school Bible clubs to operate on public school campuses just like any other club.
The directive comes months after CEF sued education officials for blocking its Good News Club® from operating in four local school districts.
The preliminary injunction protects the CEF Good News Club® from viewpoint discrimination and compels school officials to respond promptly to facility-use applications, according to Liberty Counsel, the Orlando-based legal group that represented CEF.
“This is a welcomed win not only for CEF Hawaii but for all Christian groups in the public square,” said Fred Pry, CEF Acting Vice President of Administration. “The Constitution is crystal clear that the government cannot discriminate on the basis of religion or free speech.
“We so appreciate Liberty Counsel for standing in the breach and making sure public officials don’t violate basic constitutional rights. All children deserve the opportunity to hear the truth about the life-saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that the Hawaii Department of Education and six schools continuously denied Good News Club® access to school facilities over three years, which Liberty Counsel described as “blatant religious discrimination.”
“This is a great victory for Child Evangelism Fellowship, parents, and the students in Hawaii public schools,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public schools cannot discriminate against Christian viewpoints regarding use of school facilities.
“Child Evangelism Fellowship gives children a safe space that offers moral and character development from a Christian viewpoint. A Good News Club® should be in every public elementary school.”
Before the pandemic, Child Evangelism Fellowship of Hawaii had established clubs in more than a dozen schools across Oahu and on other islands. However, despite restoring after-school programs in 2022 after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Education blocked CEF from restarting its clubs.
In the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Hawaii, CEF Hawaii named several defendants, including the Hawaii Department of Education and Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi; and other area superintendents such as Rochelle Mahoe, Linell Dilwith, Janette Snelling and Richard Fajardo.
The complaint said that denial of access to CEF violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments because the schools allowed secular organizations such as the Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts.
“CEF will continue to fight for equal access in public schools,” Pry said. “We have had at least 200 cases and never lost one.”
Child Evangelism Fellowship, which was founded 87 years ago, has been establishing the Good News Club® in countries around the world for decades. Clubs are thriving worldwide, in countries including Australia, Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Uganda and many more.
In 2023, through the combined ministries of CEF, more than 25.2 million children worldwide heard the Good News. More than 577,000 teachers were trained around the world.
For more CEF news, see the ministry’s latest edition of the online magazine Impact.
Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is an international, nonprofit, Christian ministry that has been dedicated to seeing every child reached with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, discipled and established in a local church since 1937. CEF is located in all 50 American states and in most countries around the world, with over 3,500 paid staff and tens of thousands of volunteers around the world.
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To interview a representative from Child Evangelism Fellowship, contact [email protected], Beth Bogucki, 610.584.1096, ext. 105, or Daniel Moyer, ext. 104.