Duval County school district officials have yet to respond to the threat of a lawsuit after it withdrew student graduation ceremonies from being staged at local churches.
“The school district will not win this case based upon the current law,” said Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. “We have given them a timeframe and they are not responding.
Liberty Counsel, a tax-exempt law firm that engages in litigation related to the free expression of Christianity, sent a demand letter to the Jacksonville school district about its policy that forced Chets Creek Elementary School, Hendricks Avenue Elementary School and Holiday Hill Elementary School to abruptly cancel their school graduations at Chets Creek Church, Southside United Methodist Church and Holiday Hill Church this year.
The schools had held the ceremonies at these religious facilities for years.
“What’s at stake for these particular students and their parents right now is that they have been slapped in the face at the last minute by an uninformed attorney who misrepresents and doesn't understand the law,” Staver told the Florida Record. “What's at stake fundamentally is the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and free exercise of religion.”
The May 16 letter, addressed to DCPS attorney Brian K. McDuffie, states that the district policy is overly restrictive and out of line with binding Supreme Court precedent.
“DCPS should restore schools’ abilities to hold events — especially long-running and annually recurring events like graduation ceremonies — in the facilities of churches or other religious organizations that have been and remain eager to provide the benefit of free or low-cost space to the schools in their communities,” wrote Roger Gannam, Liberty Counsel’s assistant vice president of legal affairs in the letter.
DCPS attorney McDuffie forwarded a request for comment to the district's marketing and public relations department.
On April 27, Liberty Counsel received a $950,000 settlement in Vazzo v. City of Tampa after it was determined by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that it is unconstitutional to prohibit licensed counselors from providing elective talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate same-sex attractions.
Liberty Counsel also won a settlement on behalf of Harvest Rock Church in which the State of California agreed to pay $1.35 million to end litigation over COVID-19 church prohibitions.
“The school district is digging in their heels,” Staver said in an interview. “So, we will circle around this summer and talk to our clients, the churches, about suing Duval County. The school district attorney still insists that it's an establishment clause violation but the problem with his thinking is that the case he relies upon was overturned last year by a case that we took to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
In Shurtleff v. City of Boston, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Boston's censoring of Christian viewpoints and Liberty Counsel won a $2.1 million settlement.
“I don't have any idea where the schools will hold their graduation ceremonies,” Staver added. “They're trying to figure that out. There are multiple venues that are at issue, which makes it a bigger problem.”