Years of Backpack Searches for Bibles, Scolding for Talking About Jesus, and Religious Discrimination Against Christian Girl Coming to Light as ACLJ Holds Public School District Accountable in New Court Demands

A Christian girl in Washington state has been told, over and over, that her faith is the problem.

In second grade, school officials searched her backpack, confiscated her religious materials, and sent her to the principal’s office for sharing her faith. After the ACLJ stepped in, Highline Public Schools promised – in writing – to let her exercise her faith freely. Years later at Sylvester Middle School, a vice principal pulled J.H. out of class and told her to stop distributing religious tracts. Then, on May 29, J.H. was sent back into a mandatory “Inclusion Assembly” and told she had “no choice” but to attend.

As we’ve reported, that is three violations of one student’s religious liberty. This is a school district that treats religious speech as a problem to be managed while welcoming nearly every other message.

The First Amendment doesn’t allow that. Students don’t shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate, and the government may not favor secular viewpoints over religious ones. Parents, not schools, direct the religious upbringing of their children. Highline’s own reaction to J.H.’s speech and faith shows where it stood: Other student protesting activity was permitted, while a Christian girl was told to put her tracts away.

That is why we served our first round of discovery requests in our lawsuit on Highline and Vice Principal Lori McEwen this week. As our reply brief showed, Highline’s own witnesses have already admitted the key facts. Now we are going after the rest of the story:

• How Highline treats everyone else. We’ve demanded records on how the district handled other students’ religious expression, other student clubs, and other political and ideological demonstrations. Is the rule the same for every viewpoint? We intend to find out.
• Whether the promises meant anything. We’ve asked what happened to the 2022 assurances, the opt-outs this family once received, and the written accommodations the district has given other students.
• What leadership knew. We want to know what the superintendent and school board knew, and what training staff received on student religious expression, parental notice, and the Equal Access Act.
• Proof behind Highline’s claims. The district says attendance at the assembly was optional. We want every announcement, record, and video that supports that.

Highline can describe its conduct however it likes in a brief. Discovery will show what actually happened.

No child should learn that her faith is unwelcome the moment she speaks it. We will keep fighting until Highline learns the same lesson the Constitution already teaches.