Four school districts in Hawaii have denied a Christian school club access to their facilities while allowing other after-school programs to meet on campus. And now the after-school program is filing a lawsuit against the districts for violating its First Amendment rights.
Non-profit legal group, Liberty Counsel, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Child Evangelism Fellowship of Hawaii (CEF) against the Hawaii State Department of Education and the superintendents of four schools for not allowing its Good News Club to meet on site.
The lawsuit claims the schools violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, state laws, and school policies by blocking the Good News Club in elementary schools.
“Despite this history of enriching after-school programs for Hawaii students, CEF has been subject to multiple instances of opposition, hostility, and discrimination by Defendants and their officials,” reads the lawsuit.Â
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, CEF Hawaii had active Good News Clubs in over a dozen schools on Oahu and other islands. Then after restricting after-school programs due to COVID-19, school officials partially restarted after-school programs in November 2021.
It fully restored after-school programs in 2022.Â
CEF Hawaii submitted applications to host Good News Clubs in several schools that
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