Injunction Allowing School Bible Club to Meet Refused

A Superior Court judge Thursday refused to order Mission Viejo High School to allow about 40 Bible club members to meet on campus, an attorney in the case said.

Superior Court Judge Dennis S. Choate rejected the request by a 16-year-old Mission Viejo student, Justin Vanschoick, for an injunction.

The senior-to-be filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Saddleback Valley Unified School District’s refusal to recognize the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as a legitimate school club because it is a religious group, said John Mendoza, Vanschoick’s lawyer.

The lawsuit argued that under the Equal Access Act, school officials must recognize the club as long as they allow other clubs that are not related to the school’s curriculum, Mendoza said.

Trial is set for Oct. 20, but Mendoza had sought an injunction giving the club equal access until the case is resolved. But Choate ruled that Vanschoick would not suffer irreparable harm and pointed out that school is not in session for the summer, Mendoza said.

The student’s mother, Sheila Vanschoick, said Thursday she is infuriated that her son’s “extremely positive group” is not allowed in school.

“There are very few things kids can get involved with that are positive,” the mother said. “It breaks my heart that there are so many rules and regulations that have been inflicted upon us.”

Although the ruling came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that made it more difficult for the government to interfere with religious practices, Mendoza said his case is not about religion. It’s about gaining equal access, he said.

Mendoza said school officials already allow two non-curriculum clubs, a Key Club and a girls’ league, both community service clubs.

“We like those clubs, we have no problems with the clubs,” Mendoza said. “The problem is that once they allow those clubs, they can’t discriminate” against Vanschoick’s group.

School officials contend that these clubs satisfy an eight-hour community service graduation requirement, therefore making them part of the curriculum, Mendoza said. However, he said, at least one school official has said there is no such graduation requirement.

In a previous interview, Supt. Peter A. Hartman said he felt the district would be vindicated in court, based on a decision by the Supreme Court in 1988 that prevented students at Mission Viejo and El Toro high schools from promoting or advertising religion-oriented clubs on campus.

In the spring of 1996, Vanschoick began meeting with about 10 students to form the Bible club. The group was not allowed to meet in classrooms, but they could gather on a lawn during lunch and before and after school, Vanschoick’s mother said. The group, which has since grown to about 40 members, also was denied access to multimedia equipment, such as speakers and school newspapers, Sheila Vanschoick said.

After the group’s application to be a legitimate school club was denied, Vanschoick went to Mendoza, a pro bono attorney affiliated with the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute, which is a Christian legal center.

“In this day and age, when you have so much negativity in schools with drugs and alcohol and violence, it seems to some that [school officials] should welcome a club that promotes community services and good will,” Mendoza said. “Instead, the school district is defiantly saying, ‘Well too bad, we’re not going to allow your Bible club.’ ”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Tina Nguyen.