Since 2016, Bethel
Christian Academy has been giving out millions of dollars worth of scholarships
to those who wish to attend their school. These scholarships are provided by
the BOOST program, which gives scholarships to students from low-income backgrounds
to attend nonpublic schools. This program has non-discrimination rules that
require schools to accept students no matter their race, color, national
origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Bethel Christian
Academy is a nonpublic school in Savage, Maryland run by Bethel Ministries and
is a Pentecostal church. Bethel says that they do not turn down students
based on sexual orientation but only asks students to refrain from engaging in
sexual conduct, and there have no been any cases to prove that they have ever
discriminated against a student.
In the fall of 2017,
officials from the Maryland State Department of Education said that Bethel did
not follow the scholarship’s non-discrimination requirement after reading the
Parent-Student Handbook that stated the school supports the bible’s view of
marriage between a man and woman. It also said ‘that God immutably
bestows gender upon each person at birth as male or female to reflect His
image’. They revoked the school’s
ability to provide any more scholarships because of these beliefs and also
ordered them to pay more than $100,000 for previous scholarships.
In June, Bethel school
filed a lawsuit against the state that this was a violation of their freedom of
speech, freedom to exercise religion, religion establishment clauses, and due
process and equal protection clauses. They said that by having the state
penalizing the school for its beliefs, they are discriminating against
them. Bethel principal, Claire Dant,
said that the school does not ask for a student’s sexual orientation during the
admission process and that if someone is gay, ‘it is invisible’. She said
she does not know if any student who is gay has ever gone to her
school.
In the brief that they
filed it said that since the school has represented that it will not
discriminate against students based on their sexual orientation or gender
identity that the state officials are punishing the schools for its beliefs and
expression, violating the First Amendment.
They also argued that
the Supreme Court case Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer
stated that a private organization cannot be required to renounce its religious
character to participate in a public benefit program.
On November 14th of this
year, the state tried to dismiss Bethel’s case, but a federal judge denied this
request stating that Bethel had said it does not discriminate on the basis of
sexual orientation in its admissions. This case has not been resolved
yet.
This case is very tough
because there are cases that can say that both the school and state are
discriminating in some cases. The school could be discriminating against
students, but the state is clearly discriminating against the school. Because of the fact that there is no proof
that the school has ever discriminated against a student, and that the school
does not ask for a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity, then I am
siding with the Bethel school in this case. Just because the school
supports a certain religious belief, does not mean they choose who receives
their scholarships based on this. These
students also have the choice of whether or not they can attend this
school. If they do not want to attend
because they do not agree with their beliefs, they can choose another non-public
school to go to. Since this money is
already going to nonpublic schools, then it is not an issue. Just because
a school has a certain belief, does not mean they are discriminating. They clearly do not turn anyone away based on
their beliefs or identities, because they do not ask anyone on their
applications. They cannot discriminate
against information that they do not know.
The school has the freedom of speech and freedom of religion, so they
have the right to have these views since they are not discriminating against
anyone.
3 comments:
I also agree with the author in this case in siding with the school. This is a private institution and not a state funded institution so I think that gives them more liberty to discriminate based on anything if they so desire. Furthermore there is no evidence that they were doing any discrimination in their admission process.
As long as the school is abiding by the non-discrimination rules of the BOOST program, I agree with the decision of the author to side with Bethel. There has been no known evidence that they have discriminated against any students. However, if there was, then this would be an entirely different case. Although their statement may be viewed as problematic or discrimiinatory in its nature, the school is technically protected by the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment in this particular instance.
Assuming the school does not look at sexual orientation in the scholarship process, adheres by the BOOST discrimination policy, and has not had any controversies, I agree with Caroline and previous commenters that Bethel is in the right here. As a private school which organizes/raises its own funds, they have free will to run their school with whatever values they please (within safety/reason). As a former Catholic school student of 13 years, I am not surprised that Bethel teaches said values, as they are pillars of Christianity. I understand it may be nauseating for some parents to hear that a school is putting these thoughts into the minds of young, impressionable students; the reality is, if you live in Maryland and do not want your own children to be exposed to Bethel's teachings, then you have the ability send your kids to a different school.
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