Students at a Seventh-day Adventist high school went to federal court Tuesday asking a judge to back their right to play basketball and observe the Sabbath.
They allege the Alabama High School Athletic Association violated the First Amendment’s religious free exercise protections when the body wouldn’t switch a championship semi-final game, even when the other competing schools consented.
The dustup started Feb. 19 when the AHSAA balked at a compromise the Huntsville, Alabama, high school had reached with Faith Christian School concerning a playoff game due to begin at 4:30 p.m. that Saturday. The Oakwood team couldn’t play before sunset on that day, when their Sabbath observance ends.
Faith Christian had agreed to swap the 4:30 start time with a 7:30 game between Decatur Heritage Christian Academy and Cornerstone School. Those teams had also consented.
But the AHSAA balked at the accommodation. Executive director Alvin Briggs, in a letter explaining the denial, asserted “granting an exemption or making an exception for any reason, every time one is requested, would be chaotic.”
The Oakwood students had to forfeit the game, after what one Adventist official said was a season of hard work.
The AHSAA on Tuesday referred a reporter to their legal counsel, attorney C. Mark Bain of Melton, Espy & Williams, P.C., who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Orlan Johnson, director of public affairs and religious liberty for the Adventist Church’s North American division, said the students were heartbroken and “to a person, found themselves in tears” over the refusal.
“The fact that someone was willing to work out scheduling that did not seem to create any undue hardship to anyone else and to have that be totally rejected was just heartbreaking,” Mr. Johnson said in a telephone interview.
One of the attorneys representing the school decried the AHSAA’s actions.
“It’s bad enough that AHSAA would intentionally exclude a religious school for honoring the Fourth Commandment,” attorney Eric Rassbach, senior counsel and vice president of Becket, a public interest law firm, said in a statement.
“But it’s worse when the exclusion is entirely unnecessary — like most Americans faced with this issue, the schools had worked out a simple, common-sense solution. But the bureaucrats said no. The First Amendment demands much more,” Mr. Rassbach added.
The students have one prominent Alabaman in their corner, however. Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, wrote to AHSAA’s Mr. Briggs asking why the group couldn’t accommodate the change request.
“I’ve read that the AHSAA denied Oakwood’s simple request — not once but twice,” Ms. Ivey wrote. Without a time change, she noted, the school would have to “forfeit the game entirely, and thereby lose the chance to continue a hard-fought and hard-earned successful season.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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