FCA v San Jose Unified School District
By erin conner
In an article on the FIRE (The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) website, Robert Shibley reports that in 2019, at a high school in California, Fellowship of Christian Athletes' (FCA) recognition as a student group was revoked for requiring that student leaders comply with their statements of belief. These statements align with the basic tenets of Christian theology.
On September 13, 2023, belief-based student groups won an important victory in the lawsuit that followed, Fellowship of Christian Athletes v. San Jose Unified School District, which restored the ability of many such groups to meet on public campuses and schools in the many western states covered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The implications for any faith or belief-based group are easy to see in this case, which is why, in part, Christian Union has held freedom of speech to be one of its most important values.
In 2022, a survey on student free expression added 45,000 student voices to the national conversation about free speech on college campuses. Fire.org reports that this survey revealed that “many students are afraid to speak… many others want to silence the voices of those who don’t share their viewpoint and that 63% of students fear reputational damage if they speak their minds at their schools.”
It seems clear that the freedoms of speech, religion, and association are not simply under attack at one public school in California, but at educational institutions—and perhaps university campuses especially—across our nation.
Let us pray for leaders in all industries and spheres of society across our nation to defend the freedoms that afford us and subsequent generations the opportunity to continue to seek, find, and follow Truth.
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You can read FIRE's full article on the 9th Circuit's decision here.
