This confuses me

by

by David Safier

From Riverside, CA, in yesterday's Star:

A California appeals court has ruled that a Christian high school can expel students because of an alleged lesbian relationship.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside on Monday upheld California Lutheran High School's right as a private, religious organization to exclude students based on sexual orientation.
Two girls sued claiming they were discriminated against after they were expelled from the Wildomar school in 2005. A lower court said the school isn't bound by the same anti-discrimination laws as a business establishment.

John McKay, attorney for California Lutheran, says the school's goal is to educate based on Christian principles.

I find that court decision jaw dropping, but I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on this blog.
Can a student be expelled from a religious school for holding beliefs different from the school's — or simply being different from the norm? Could a Jew or a Muslim be kicked out? Someone who proclaims love for Black Sabbath? (I know I'm dating myself here. Replace with the music group of your choice.) Someone who believes abortion should be legal? Someone who is black or Latino or Asian when everyone else is white Anglo Saxon?
I'm not sure I understand how sexual orientation is different from those examples.

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5 thoughts on “This confuses me”

  1. Yes, the school can do anything it wants. I worked at the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School (now Jess Schwartz College Prep, although one of my former students, now at NAU, wrote me on Facebook saying it was “more of a cult than a school,” and another, also now at NAU, said he was a graduate of the “Zionist Brainwashing Academy”) and they got rid of students or refused to take them for any reason they felt like. This is perfectly legal.

    If the school in the post were a public school, of course, the students’ constitutional rights come into play.

  2. azw, thanks for the excellent analysis. I said in the post I was confused, not that the schools couldn’t expel the kids. Now I understand, they can. But vouchers and neo-vouchers (tax credits) shouldn’t be used to support them.

  3. Sadly, the private school can exclude/expel kids for actions that run counter the school’s teachings, beliefs, and philosophies.

    Instead of bemoaning this (this is not the first such ruling to come down from the SCOTUS), we should seize on this ruling to do away with the tax credit to private school tuition organizations. We need to leverage this loss to do away with what is essentially tax supported religious instruction.

  5. Freedom of Religion

    David Safier over at Blog for AZ is confused by the recent California court ruling that upholds the rights of Churches and private organizations to limit their membership:

    “Can a student be expelled from a religious school for holding beliefs different from the school’s — or simply being different from the norm? ”

    Of course. A Church or private school can determine to only accept students who profess the same beliefs. Just like Lefty blogs usually delete posts of people who disagree with them; it’s their blog, so it’s their right.

    “Could a Jew or a Muslim be kicked out?Someone who proclaims love for Black Sabbath? (I know I’m dating myself here. Replace with the music group of your choice.) Someone who believes abortion should be legal? ”

    Of course.

    ” Someone who is black or Latino or Asian when everyone else is white Anglo Saxon?”

    No, because there is no authentic religious basis for discriminating against anyone on the basis of race. Unless, of course, you’re Jeremiah Wright.

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