UPDATED
The Freedom From Religion Foundation was among the protesters outside of Middleton High School in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District (Wisconsin) on Tuesday, objecting to the once-per-week “Jesus Lunches” that volunteer parents provide for students.
“The weekly lunches involving parents meeting with students to eat, discuss their Christian faith and distribute Bibles,” EAGNews.org reports, “have been going on for years.”
“It started on the high school campus with a handful of students meeting their mothers for lunch, but became much bigger over the past few years and moved off campus, eventually to Fireman’s Park.”
The get-together is for students who choose to partake.
As noted, the set-up is not on the school campus — it takes place at an adjacent public park. Again, public park.
The school district claims it has jurisdiction over the park “because it leases it from the city during school hours.”
But according to an attorney for the parents who run the lunch, this lease “does not prevent citizens from entering or using the park for any legal reason.”
Last week, officials from the district attempted to thwart parents from entering the park by putting up parking cones. In addition, district superintendent Donald Johnson personally showed up to persuade the volunteers not to set up shop.
RELATED: School district violates Christian college students’ rights, civil rights official says
Middleton HS also had sent out a letter to parents stating officials “believe that religious or political events do not have a place in [the] schools or on [the] campus,” except when student-led, and … expressed concerns about the quality of the food.
It also said that the “free” aspect of the meals was serving to “incentivize participation” in a religious event.
Two days ago, the ante was upped as protesters interrupted this week’s scheduled lunch:
Members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation were on hand, including attorney Ryan Jayne.
“Parents should know, when they send their kids to school, that they are not going to be preached at by other adults luring them with food,” Jayne told the MacIver News Service. “I do think the administration should do something to make sure this is not a weekly event.”
Several rabbis also were in attendance with one claiming that students who didn’t participate in the lunches were being harassed in school.
“Do you think that this is an OK thing to happen? Do you think Jesus would approve of you coming here and hurting these kids?” she asks on the video.
A few Jesus Lunch participants said there was never an issue with the lunches until school administrators and outside groups began making waves.
If what has been reported is accurate, the district and the FFRF are just making noise. The parents are in a public park, so like any individual or group, religious organizations have a right to assemble there. Heck, a religious group could meet in the school after normal operating hours if the building is made available to other, secular, groups.
If what the rabbi said is true, school officials should deal with it. Unless there is evidence that students and/or parents affiliated with the Jesus Lunches have advocated hassling students who do not come out for the weekly meal, placing blame on them is irresponsible.
Here’s a possible solution to quell the district’s burden: Just forbid students to leave the building over lunch hours. Why do they have to go outside? It’s not an elementary school, after all, which has recess.
Lastly, consider: What would the district’s response be if there was a weekly “LGBT Lunch”? An “African-American Students Lunch”? An “Islamic Heritage Lunch”?
Read the full stories at EAGNews.org.
UPDATE: In a letter to Superintendent Johnson dated April 14, the FFRF’s Jayne writes that the district’s lease on the park, provided by the city, grants the school “the right to enforce all or any of [the District’s] rules and regulations affecting” students. However, it also says the lease is for “joint control of, and jurisdiction over,” the park — “joint” (presumably) meaning the other party is the city.
As noted in the article, attorney for the “Jesus Lunch” parents Phil Stamman disputes this interpretation. In a statement noted on the Jesus Lunch Middleton Facebook page, Stamman says
“Fireman’s Park – a public park owned by the City of Middleton – remains accessible to everyone in the public for the purposes of assembly and free speech. By law, the lease agreement between the city and the School District of Middleton does not privatize the park. Christian parents who provide a free lunch and share their religious beliefs with park visitors retain their First Amendment rights to do so, notwithstanding unfounded protests from the school district.”
In a phone conversation with The College Fix this afternoon, Mr. Stamman reiterated the above, and added that the city has taken the opposite position of the FFRF. In addition, the school has indicated it won’t try to stop the lunches unless there’s a change in the lease.
RELATED: Colorado teacher sues district over Bibles, ‘prayer circles,’ and ‘ministering’ at school
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.