Godspeak Church bought Little Oaks Elementary School in 2009 and as one of the major changes to the school, all of the previous teachers of Little Oaks had to reapply for teaching jobs. Part of the application process required teachers to fill out questionnaires which asked questions about their faith. Some of these questions included whether or not they attended church and what church they attended. Two teachers, Lynda Serrano and Mary Ellen Guevara, were not rehired as they refused to fill out the paperwork needed to apply for the job. Serrano and Guevara filed a lawsuit against the school, but now in retaliation, the school is filing a religious liberty lawsuit against the two.
These lawsuits from the teachers are preposterous. Any private institution has the right to express their freedom of religion, something rooted in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Do I agree with their choice to only hire Christian teachers? No. But legally, they have the right to do so. As someone who attended a Catholic high school for four years, I appreciated the fact that some of my teachers held different beliefs such as Islam, Judaism and atheism. It allowed me to see a different perspective and understand that once you enter the real world, you’re not going to be surrounded by everyone who believes the same things you do. Schools like Brigham Young University, a Mormon school, and Liberty University, a Christian school, have students sign a contract agreeing to abstain from alcohol, drugs and sex while attending the university. Not everyone’s ideal university, but they should have the right to create the environment they choose of a school they founded with little to no government support.
I think there is a difference between discriminating against someone because of their religion, or lack of, and wanting to hire only employees that would benefit your private company because of their beliefs. We could look at it like any other private company. For example, if I was the chief editor of a top fashion magazine and I have two equally talented writers applying for a job but can only hire one, would I want to hire the applicant who loves fashion and reads up on it every day or the applicant who could care less about fashion and doesn’t know the difference between Vera Wang and Vera Bradley? Obviously, any successful boss would go for the first applicant.
And that is exactly what Godspeak Church was trying to do. In their minds, hiring teachers with Christian backgrounds would benefit their students. In the application for teachers provided on the school’s website, Little Oaks acknowledged this when they stated, “Little Oaks is a Christian private school owned by Calvary Chapel of Thousand Oaks and as such, places the highest value on our staff reflecting Jesus Christ in all our work with each other, with the children, with parents and with all other constituents. Our hiring and retention policy first and foremost expects all staff, in all positions to be capable and comfortable with this.” The application also includes a section known as the “Statement of Faith” where they ask for a reference from the applicant’s pastor. On the reference form, Little Oaks provides some sort of creed that claims what the school believes starting with, “We believe… the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, are inspired, inerrant and infallible.” At the end of the form, the applicant’s pastor must sign whether or not they believe the applicant would agree with this and promote it.
Whether we agree with this form of application or not, we can still be certain that Godspeak Church wasn’t discriminating, but rather trying to hire an applicant that shared their beliefs and would be an asset to the overall mission of the school.
It is a shame that teachers who once worked at the school when it was public will now lose their jobs, but if the school were to have completely shut down and no church would have bought it they would have lost their job anyway.
I often see small private schools near my hometown get shut down or be bought by the state. Growing up in Chicago, my mother was one of the many children in her neighborhood that went to a same-sex Catholic school. A couple years ago, her grade school shut down as it continued to shrink in enrollment. These things happen and teachers are left unemployed. It seems that this lawsuit, however, is just a way for the teachers to express their frustration. To be honest, part of me doesn’t blame them. In a country where less and less money is going into our education system causing schools to be shut down and classrooms to be overloaded, this lawsuit represents more than just a job lost caused by the beliefs of a church. If we invested more in our children’s education, we’d have more schools giving employment to the thousands of well qualified teachers who are searching for a job.
We can’t overlook Godspeak Church’s right to religion when addressing these lawsuits. But maybe what we can take away from this is that our education system needs an upgrade, sooner rather than later.
Vanessa Righeimer can be reached at vanessa.righeimer@spartans.ut.edu
My sibling attended this school, and it was and is completely for profit. Under state law, this means they cannot use the religions of these teachers against them. If it was a non-profit private school, then I would agree with you, but it’s just a regular private school that in the last 2 years suddenly tried to become a christian school.