State College school district settles lawsuit over parochial school student participation
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- SCASD agreed to settle a lawsuit allowing parochial students in activities.
- The district will pay $150,000 in legal fees through its insurance provider.
- Eligibility rules permit sports access only if not offered at parochial schools.
The State College Area School District asked a federal judge Thursday to approve a settlement that would give parochial school students more opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities.
The district and the Religious Rights Foundation of PA — the Centre County-based religious advocacy organization that sued on behalf of two parents of parochial school students — are awaiting approval from U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann.
The school board unanimously approved the agreement at its public meeting last week. The district did not admit any liability. Its insurer will pay the foundation’s attorneys $150,000.
Under the agreement, eligible parochial school students can participate in public school extracurricular activities. The district may impose its general student selection criteria.
Students who attend parochial schools that sponsor interscholastic athletic sports are not eligible to participate in those same sports through the district. If those schools do not offer a particular sport, parochial school students are eligible to participate through SCASD.
Eligibility disputes are to be resolved with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. The agreement contains a similar clause for students looking to participate in co-curriculars or clubs.
“Put all the lawyer stuff aside, it’s what’s in the best interest of these kids,” foundation attorney Thomas E. Breth told the Centre Daily Times on Monday. “It’s really about these kids having an opportunity to participate in these things and further their religious belief at the same time.”
School district attorney Paul J. Cianci said SCASD believed it could not permit parochial school student participation, in part, because the PIAA disfavored it. But as litigation unfolded, Cianci said the district determined that is “not always the case.”
“Because PIAA’s position on this subject is not clear, the Consent Order provides essentially that PIAA must first approve of parochial school student participation on School District sports teams before there is any obligation on the part of the School District to permit the participation,” Cianci wrote in an email.
The foundation alleged in its July 2023 lawsuit that the district violated the First Amendment’s free exercise and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clauses by allowing home- and charter-schooled students to participate, but not parochial students.
Brann rejected the district’s request to dismiss the lawsuit in December 2023, writing its attorneys’ arguments were outdated and unhelpful. It’s unclear when he may grant approval.
“Regardless of what reasons some parents may have for sending their children to a non-public school, a religious reason has the same value as a secular reason,” Brann wrote. “If some exemptions are made, a school’s refusal to make a religious one enforces a value judgment preferring secular conduct over religious.”