An Arizona school board is facing a lawsuit after it severed a long-standing partnership with a Christian university that supplied student teachers over their religious beliefs.
Conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the lawsuit against Washington Elementary School District on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.
Board President Nikkie Gomez-Whaley described the relationship as “mutually beneficial.” However, the school district ended the partnership at a board meeting two weeks ago, where board members discussed the university’s Christian beliefs.
Three school district board members identify as part of the LGBT community. They each characterized the Christian ethos of ACU and its students as potentially harmful to LGBT students during the board meeting.
“Not only are school officials doing a tremendous disservice to Phoenix and Glendale families by depriving their kids of much-needed teaching assistance, they are also violating the First Amendment and state law,” said ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker in a statement.
‘Irreparable Harm’
David Cortman, a senior counsel and head of litigation at the ADF, said in a statement that school district officials are causing “irreparable harm” to the Christian university “every day they force it to choose between its religious beliefs and partnering with the area’s public schools.”The partnership was mutually beneficial, enabling student teachers to gain the experience required to graduate, while the school district benefited from having additional teaching assistance at no cost, ADF noted. The school district later employed several student teachers who went through the program, according to a district official.
“At a time when there is a critical shortage of qualified, caring teachers, Washington Elementary School District officials are choosing their own political ideologies over the needs of elementary children,” Tucker said.
According to a school official, the school district currently has five student teachers and roughly 11 doing a teaching practicum. Around 25 student teachers have been placed with the school district over the last 11 years, and around 100 practicum placements where they observe classes.
Responding to the school district’s decision, an official from the university said in a statement the program has “happily served” children in the Phoenix and Glendale communities for over a decade via the partnership.
“Our university students pursuing teaching careers bring respect, kindness, and excellence to the elementary classrooms,” said Linnea Lyding, dean of the Shelly Roden School of Education and the School of Arts, Science, and Humanities at ACU.
‘I Just Don’t Believe That Belongs in Schools’
The Washington Elementary School District school board voted unanimously on Feb. 23 to terminate the partnership after discussing the university’s religious beliefs and the school district’s pro-LGBT values.According to the lawsuit, school district officials showed hostility to those beliefs, questioning how one could “be committed to Jesus Christ” and yet, at the same time, respect LGBT students and board members.
Board member Tamillia Valenzuela, whose official profile states she is a “disabled, neurodivergent Queer Black Latina,” said the presence of ACU student teachers would make some students and herself feel “unsafe.”
“At some point, we need to get real with ourselves and take a look at who we’re making legal contracts with, and the message that that is sending to our community,” Valenzuela said. “Because that makes me feel like I could not be safe in this school district. That makes other queer kids who are already facing attack from our lawmakers feel that they could not be safe in this community.”
Another LGBT board member, Kyle Clayton, expressed specific concerns that his son may be shamed by a teacher for having two dads, and that the Christian university has a “statement of faith” that students pledge to live by.
“What gave me pause was it’s not just teaching, but it’s teaching, as they say, with a biblical lens,” Clayton said. “Proselytizing is embedded into how they teach, and I just don’t believe that belongs in schools.”
“I would never want, you know, my son to talk about his two dads and be shamed by a teacher who believed a certain way and is at a school that demands that they, you know, teach through God’s—their—biblical lens.”
School district Vice President Jenni Abbott-Bayardi, who was elected to the position in 2023, queried if the university would even want to continue its partnership given the school district has “a pretty visual resolution about the LGBT community.”
Lindsey Peterson, serving her first term, said she was “embarrassed” that she allowed the school district’s partnership with ACU to continue for so long, and explained that her concern isn’t about Christianity.
“There are plenty of Christian denominations who are LGBTQ-friendly,” Peterson said. “So I want to make it clear that, for me, my pause is not that they’re Christian so much as this particular institution’s strong anti-LGBTQ stance and their strong belief that you believe this to your core and you take it out into the world.”
“We cannot continue to align ourselves with organizations that starkly contrast our values and say that we legitimately care about diversity, equity, and inclusion and that we legitimately care about all of our families,” she added.
Board members also framed some of their stances on the pretext that the school district didn’t have data on how many students from the program were going on to become employed by district schools.
The Epoch Times contacted the Washington Elementary School District board members for comment.
