Oceanside, CA—After facing months of relentless red-tape and overt religious discrimination from an ASB gatekeeper, the Oceanside Unified School District (OUSD) board of trustees unanimously approved the A-Team Bible Club at Oceanside High School (OHS) on May 14th. This breakthrough occurred within seven days of OUSD receiving an 18-page letter from the National Center for Law & Policy (NCLP) chastising the OHS ASB’s deplorable treatment of Christian student leaders and demanding that the A-Team Bible Club be immediately recognized. Sadly, student leaders attempting to launch the Christian Club had endured more than seven months of significant anti-Christian hostility and blatant religious discrimination from a rogue teacher at Oceanside High School since first attempting to form the club at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
Student-initiated and student-led religious clubs on public secondary school campuses are very well protected by the Religious Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, the Equal Access Act (EAA) and OUSD’s own policies and regulations. In spite of such well-established constitutional and statutory protections, OHSASB cashier and clerk Ms. Robbin Pollard did nothing to encourage or assist the student leaders in the religious club’s formation but, rather, actively undermined them at every turn by throwing up a series of unethical roadblocks and unlawful delaying actions.
Undaunted, these persistent Christian student leaders attempted to turn in their club application paperwork an estimated eight to ten times. Pollard lost their paperwork on one occasion and kept asking for different things to be corrected, many of which were not mandatory requirements. Rather than help them, Pollard told these student leaders on at least two occasions that there were already “too many” Christian Clubs at OHS (there were two, FCA and Young Life) and that, therefore, the club would have to change its Christian name to something other than “A-Team Bible Club” and restate its purpose. Even after the students complied, Pollard reiterated there were too many Christian clubs and that it would take at least a year to get the club approved—so, they should just wait until “next year.”
“This flagrant mistreatment and abuse of these courageous religious student leaders and other OHS students who desire to participate in the A-Team Bible Club is one of the most egregious examples of government anti-Christian religious discrimination and hostility that I have seen in my nearly thirty years of practicing law,” declared Dean Broyles. “Pollard’s actions and communications towards these Christian students were arbitrary, capricious and discriminatory. Such state anti-religious bigotry is unacceptable and is unlawful. But this is precisely what happens when the state delegates too much unchecked discretionary government power to a single ‘gatekeeper,’ who either does not know the law or does not care to abide by it. The OHS ASB, particularly Pollard, owes these student leaders an apology.”
Broyles continued, “The government must be neutral, not hostile, towards religion; and part of neutrality is accommodating religious students on campus by giving them equal access. We are very pleased that the OUSD board did the right thing and expeditiously approved the A-Team Bible Club once this horrendous debacle was brought to their attention. This is good news for students at OHS and is a big win for religious freedom.”
The A-Team Bible Club held its first meeting last Friday at lunch. Club president John Weekes opened and closed the meeting in prayer. Fifteen students enjoyed pizza while the Gospel was shared from the book of Acts and Bibles were distributed. The club plans on meeting two more times before summer break and expects to continue to build momentum next year. “I am thankful for the good work of National Center for Law & Policy that got our club approved so quickly after months of delays,” said John Weekes.
The NCLP has a 100% success rate in these cases where public school districts fail to abide by the law but rather choose to target and discriminate against religious clubs on campus. Our long line of successes includes an epic battle against the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) from 2015-2017 when it unfairly targeted student clubs supported by Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC).
The National Center for Law & Policy is a non-profit 501(c)(3) legal defense organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of religious freedom, the affirmation of life, parental rights and other civil liberties. Please visit our website at www.nclplaw.org. For further inquiries, comments, or to schedule interviews, please contact Dean Broyles at The National Center for Law & Policy at 760-747-4529 or dbroyles@nclplaw.org.