Wigg v. Sioux Falls School Dist. 49-5
| Decision Date | 23 April 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV 03-034.,CIV 03-034. |
| Citation | 259 F.Supp.2d 967 |
| Parties | Barbara WIGG, Plaintiff, v. SIOUX FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT 49-5; and Dr. Jack Keegan, in his individual and official capacity as Superintendent of the Sioux Falls School District, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of South Dakota |
Doug E. Hoffman, Myers, Peters, Hoffman & Billion, Sioux Falls, SD, Mathew D. Staver, Joel L. Oster, Rena M. Lindevaldsen, Liberty Counsel, Longwood, FL, for Plaintiff.
Michael L. Luce, Susan Brunick Simons, Sandra K. Hoglund, Dana Van Beek Palmer, Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz & Smith, Sioux Falls, SD, for Defendant.
Pending before the Court is Plaintiffs Motion for Declaratory Judgment, Preliminary and Permanent Injunctive Relief and Damages, Doc. 2. The Plaintiff submitted a memorandum of law in support of her motion, and the Defendants submitted a brief in response. The Court held a hearing on the motion on March 14, 2003. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court denied the Plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction with respect to attending the Good New Club at Laura B. Anderson Elementary School ("Anderson Elementary"), the school at which the Plaintiff teaches. The Defendants requested an opportunity to submit supplemental briefing regarding the Plaintiffs request to attend the Good News Club meetings at Sioux Falls Elementary Schools other than Anderson Elementary. The Court granted that request and both parties have now submitted supplemental briefs on that issue. For the reasons stated below, the Plaintiffs request for a preliminary injunction is denied. The Plaintiffs request for declaratory relief and a permanent injunction will be ruled on after a full trial on the merits.
Plaintiff Barbara Wigg is a second and third grade teacher at the Laura B. Anderson Elementary School in the Sioux Falls School District. She has been employed by the Sioux Falls School District ("District") since 1988 and has been assigned to five different elementary schools during her tenure with the District. The record, however, fails to establish the four other schools within the District at which the Plaintiff has worked. According to the affidavit of Mary Peterson, principal at Anderson Elementary, the teachers at Anderson Elementary agreed to maintain regular scheduled hours from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each school day, although many teachers work more than this minimum schedule. See Peterson Aff. at ¶ 3, Doc. 17. Peterson indicates that the Plaintiff herself frequently arrives earlier than 7:30 a.m. and stays at school beyond 3:30 p.m. to work on school-related matters. See id.
The District has chosen to permit access to its buildings to various organizations in order to foster community involvement. The groups range from school-sponsored to student-initiated as well as community organizations. The Good News Club is one such group. The Good News Club requested access to the school's facilities for its meetings in October 2002. The Good News Club was granted access to School District facilities, and currently meets at five elementary schools in the District, including Anderson Elementary. The group meets at Anderson Elementary Mondays from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. after school has dismissed at 2:45 p.m. The record contains no evidence as to which other four elementary schools within the District also have the Good News Club meeting at their facilities. The record is likewise bare of any evidence with respect to the time that Good News Club meetings are held at these other schools.
The Good News Club is an after-school club sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship, where children are taught morals and character development from a religious perspective. According to its literature, the purpose of the club is to "evangelize boys and girls with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and establish (disciple) them in the Word of God and in the local church for Christian living." See Keegan Aff., Ex. 3, Doc. 16.
The Plaintiff desires to participate in the Good News Club meetings that transpire at District facilities. The Good News Club first meet at Anderson Elementary on December 16, 2002 in the Anderson Elementary library. According to Principal Peterson, many of the Anderson Elementary children attending the Good News Club meetings are second and third-grade students at Anderson Elementary, many of whom are in the Plaintiffs class. See Peterson Aff. at ¶ 11, Doc. 17. Prior to the first meeting of the group, the Plaintiff approached Principal Peterson and informed her that she had volunteered to teach the class for the Good News Club at Anderson Elementary. The Plaintiff did participate in the first Good News Club meeting. After her participation, the Plaintiff was informed by Principal Peterson that she could no longer take part in Good News Club meetings held on school property because of the District's concern that her participation in the group might be perceived as an establishment of religion. Since that time, Plaintiff has not participated in any Good News Club meetings within the District.
Principal Peterson states in her affidavit that teachers, students and other groups are routinely present in the school during non-instructional hours and may be present in and/or pass through the Anderson Elementary library during this time. See Peterson Aff. at ¶ 6, Doc. 17. She further states that young children whose parents would not have seen the Good News Club's permission slip are present in the building during the time the group meets and could witness the meetings. See id. at It 15.
On January 16, 2003, the Plaintiff sent a letter to the superintendent for the District Dr. John Keegan requesting that she be allowed to participate in the Good News Club. In her letter the Plaintiff informed the District that, in order to address the Establishment Clause concerns raised by the District, the Good News Club would require each student attending the group to provide a signed permission slip that would contain the following disclaimer:
The Good News Club is a private organization and is not affiliated with the Sioux Falls School District in any manner. If some of the participants in the Good News Club are also school district employees, then the school district employees are participating in the Good News Club on their own private time, and are not representing the school in any fashion. Nor are any school district employees "on-the-clock" while participating in the Good News Club.
See Verified Complaint for Declaratory Judgment, Preliminary and Permanent Injunctive Relief and Damages, Ex. C, Doc. 1. The District responded to the Plaintiffs request on January 17, 2003, and stood by its earlier assessment that allowing the Plaintiff to participate in the Good News Club group at Anderson Elementary would present Establishment Clause issues for the District.
On January 28, 2003, the Plaintiff sent a second letter to the District again requesting that she be allowed to participate in Good News Club meetings. She relied upon the District's policy regarding religion in the school. In relevant part, the policy prohibits school personnel from organizing, providing leadership, or participating in student religious organizations, clubs, or functions on school grounds or at school-sponsored activities unless the organization has leased the facility in accordance with the community use policy. In her letter, the Plaintiff claimed that she should be allowed to participate in Good News Club meetings because the club leased its facilities in accordance with the community use policy.
The District sent a letter response on January 29, 2003, again denying the Plaintiffs request. In its letter the District explained that the provision of the policy referring to organizations which lease facilities was intended to cover circumstances in which the District permits a church to lease space in the event that the church is without its own facilities or in the process constructing its own facilities. The District claims that the language in the policy was included to allow District personnel to attend church services if her church were in such a situation of leasing facilities from the school. The District reiterated its position that if the Plaintiff participated in the Good News Club's meetings she would be violating school policy.
Although the District prohibits the Plaintiff from participating in religious clubs that meet on school grounds, she is allowed to participate in other groups that utilize school facilities. The Plaintiff has in fact participated in two such groups, the Girl Scouts and the Sioux Reading Council.
The District alleges that the actions of the Plaintiff have caused problems for the school in the past. In late November or early December 2002, the Plaintiff provided Bibles to two of her students. One of the students had returned a permission slip from her parent indicating that the parent did not object to the Plaintiff providing the student with a Bible. The other student did not return the permission slip but instead informed the Plaintiff that his father desired that he read from a "Jewish" Bible. The Plaintiff then proceeded to explain to the student the differences between the old and new testaments and made a "non-Jewish" Bible available to the student. The Plaintiff did not see the student reading the Bible in class and was also unaware that the student took the Bible home, apparently without the Plaintiffs permission. As a result of the child bringing home the Bible, the child's father threatened to sue the school, although no suit was ever filed. The Plaintiff discussed the situation with the student's mother and apparently resolved the matter.
The District has a policy that requires all district employees to wear an identification/access control card while present in district facilities. The record is clear that the Plaintiff must wear her I.D....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Wigg v. Sioux Falls School Dist. 49-5
...previously set out the essential facts of this case in its preliminary injunction opinion in this matter. See Wigg v. Sioux Falls School District, 259 F.Supp.2d 967 (D.S.D.2003). For the ease of the reader, some of those facts will be repeated here. Plaintiff Barbara Wigg is a second and th......