Demand Letter to School Officials Defends Student Rights

A legal demand letter is being sent to every superintendent and school board member in California explaining that they must have respect to parental rights and students’ religious freedoms.

A religious freedom group, Pacific Justice Institute, organized the demand letter which its president Bard Dacus described as “one of our most ambitious projects ever” to lay down the law and ramifications of violating the law, including potential liabilities and litigation.

"Our main goal [in sending out the letter] is for [schools] to seriously hesitate and not to act on recommendations by the teachers union that would trounce upon the values and convictions of the typical family in California," Dacus shares.

Insisting the school district to not violate the rights of students to pray, share their faith, and ready their Bibles on campus, the letter warns that failure to allow Christian clubs to put up posters and hold rallies on campus could lead to potential litigation.

Other topics addressed in the letter explain the rights of school boards to prohibit students from leaving campus to have an abortion without their parents receiving prior notice, as well as the right of students to celebrate religious holidays like Christmas and Easter on campus.

It also includes parents' rights to keep their children out of pro-homosexual instruction or other "tolerance" issue-based curriculum.

"Schools in California in particular have deviated far from the trust of the average parent," the attorney says, "and it's critical that there be some counterbalance to the pressures they're receiving to show films and adopt policies that are hostile and antagonistic and censoring of religious students."

According to Dacus, the letter will prevent thousands of Christian students from being subjected to outright discrimination. The letter will possibly have a positive economic effect, potentially saving both his legal firm and taxpayers large amounts of money by preventing costly lawsuits.