SHOCKING: Little Christian Girl Previously Subjected to Daily Backpack Searches for Bible Contraband Once Again Pulled From Class and Scolded For Sharing Her Faith in Jesus

Imagine your daughter being pulled out of math class by a school administrator, told that her faith must be left at the door, and then watching that same school encourage other students to leave campus for far-Left political protests. That is exactly what happened to our client at a middle school in Washington state – and this school district is a repeat offender of the Constitution.

We know because we were there the first time.

Years ago, when our client was just a second grader at an elementary school in the same district, school officials searched her backpack every morning at the entrance to the school, searching for Christian tracts and treating the Gospel like contraband. We fought back, sent a demand letter, and reached a formal written agreement with the district confirming our client’s right to distribute religious materials. The district signed it. And now they have broken it.

During math class, the vice principal walked in, removed our client from the classroom, and informed her that she was not permitted to distribute Christian Gospel tracts to willing classmates. Our client – showing far more composure than most adults would in that moment – asked a simple yet profound question: Why are other students allowed to express their viewpoints while she is not?

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The vice principal’s answer was stunning in its candor, telling our client directly that students may share opinions, but not religious beliefs. We’ve seen this thousands of times at the ACLJ, yet it never fails to shock. A public school official – in the United States of America – told a child that her faith is a category of speech that the government can simply exclude. This is textbook viewpoint discrimination, and it is flatly unconstitutional.

But it gets worse. In the very same conversation, the vice principal pointed to the school’s practice of allowing students to leave campus during school hours to participate in anti-ICE protests as an example of perfectly acceptable expression. Political protest – permitted. Quietly sharing a Gospel tract with a classmate who asked for one – forbidden. The double standard could not be more explicit – or more illegal.

The First Amendment does not allow public school officials to pick and choose which viewpoints deserve protection. The Supreme Court has made this unmistakably clear: Students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Viewpoint discrimination – treating speech less favorably because of the perspective it expresses –  is among the most serious constitutional violations a government actor can commit. And this school has now committed it twice against the same child.

Previously, when our client asked to start a Christian student club, she was told she could – but that she would need to find a teacher willing to sponsor it. This is also illegal. The Equal Access Act and the District’s own policy require the principal to assign a faculty monitor. The burden is not on the middle schooler to recruit a sponsor as a precondition of her constitutional rights.

The ACLJ has sent a formal demand letter to the school superintendent. We are requiring the district to respond in writing by Friday, March 27 – and that response must include immediate, unequivocal written assurances on two points: First, that our client will be permitted to share her faith and distribute tracts to willing classmates during non-instructional time without any further interference from school officials; and second, that she will be allowed to form and operate a Christian student club on the exact same terms and conditions that apply to every other non-curriculum-related student group on campus.

This district made a promise. They put it in writing. They signed it. And they broke it anyway. A violation of a child’s constitutional rights – even for a moment – causes irreparable harm. That is not rhetoric; that is the law. If the school district does not comply by our deadline, we are prepared to take this issue to federal court. No school district gets to silence a child’s faith, break a signed agreement, and face no consequences. Not on our watch.

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