School District Sued Over Religious Rights : Courts: A private advocacy group alleges that Grossmont officials illegally prohibited a student from creating a Christian study group.

The Grossmont Union High School District was sued in federal court Tuesday for allegedly prohibiting one of its students to formally establish a Christian Bible study and prayer group on the Granite Hills High School campus.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego, alleges that the school district violated the 1984 federal Equal Access Act and the constitutional rights of students to free speech, free assembly, free association and religious liberty by not allowing 16-year-old Abe Hayhurst to set up “The Voice of Christ” at the El Cajon school.

“We’ve picked out the most flagrant violation we could find in San Diego County, and we’re going to let it be known we’re not going to talk any more,” said Encinitas attorney Cyrus Zal, general counsel for the Rutherford Institute of California. “We’re just going to sue.”

Zal described the institute as a private, civil liberties organization with a conservative bent and specializing in the defense of religious liberty.

Zal is under a sentence of house arrest after being found in contempt of court in connection with his defense of persons arrested in a flurry of Operation Rescue efforts in 1989. Operation Rescue has mounted protests in front of clinics that perform abortions.

El Cajon Municipal Court Judge Larrie Brainard found Zal in contempt for the comments he made to jurors during the resulting trials and was sentenced to nine months and 20 days custody in his home and office.

A spokesman for school district Supt. Jo Ann Smith said Tuesday that the district had not yet been served with the complaint so it could not react to it.

Ned Blass, Granite Hills High principal, said late Tuesday that, although he had not heard of the suit being filed, he was approached last fall by some students wishing to organize a Christian religious study club.

Blass said he told the students they could organize the club according to district policy allowing extracurricular groups to meet on school grounds as a study group, but not as a school-sponsored club.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June, 1990, ruled that student religious groups have the right to meet on public school property during noninstructional hours.

The justices said a ban on such religious groups violated the 1984 Equal Access Act, written by Congress to prohibit secondary schools that receive federal funds and have a “limited open forum” from discriminating against student clubs based on the religious, philosophical or political content of their speech.

In a “limited open forum,” public secondary schools must permit “noncurriculum related groups,” from chess or scuba clubs to religious clubs, to use school facilities, the Supreme Court said in interpreting the law.

The Grossmont district revised its policies last July in an effort to conform to the Supreme Court decision. The rules allow groups such as Campus Life, a national Christian organization, to invite outside advisers onto campus once a week to speak to such study groups, but prohibit them from roaming the campuses to talk to or try to recruit students.

But Zal said Tuesday that Grossmont is the only district he is aware of in San Diego County that has not adjusted its district policies to allow the formation of religious, philosophical and political student groups in the wake of the court ruling.

He said he “talked and negotiated” with other school districts in the county to ensure that they had fallen in line with the law, but that “it’s time now to stop talking and sue.”

“I could spend hours every week resolving these situations, but then I don’t get attorney’s fees. We don’t have the resources or facilities to invest all the time it would take to contact every school district to make sure they comply with the law.

“So, if we find a school district breaking the law, they’ll be sued without warning. It’s up to them to review their own policies, written or otherwise, to make sure they’re now in compliance.”

The lawsuit seeks $25,000 in compensatory damages as well as attorney’s fees and court costs.

Student Hayhurst, who lives in Alpine, said he was allowed to “informally” hold club meetings in the classroom of a history teacher during the lunch hour, but was otherwise banned by the school from promoting the club through announcements or other channels of campus publicity. The club attracted 20 to 50 students, he said.

He said his complaints that he was being disenfranchised were summarily rejected by high school officials, who said they had to defer to districtwide policy.