Elementary school district settles lawsuit over ditching evangelical Christian university’s interns

Arizona’s largest elementary school district has settled an evangelical Christian university’s lawsuit alleging religious discrimination, agreeing to reinstate a program accepting student teachers from the school.

Attorneys representing Arizona Christian University announced the settlement late last week, two months after filing a federal lawsuit against the 33-school Washington Elementary School District, or WESD, in Glendale, Arizona — the same Phoenix-area city in which ACU is located.

The district ended an 11-year relationship with the school after the district’s board members contended — without evidence, the university said — that the evangelical student teachers can’t treat LGBTQ students and employees with respect.

The March lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Phoenix, said the district acted “solely because of [the school’s] religious status and beliefs.”

The settlement renews the agreement placing ACU students in WESD schools for a one-year term beginning July 1. The district will also pay $25,000 in legal fees to ACU and its attorneys, the Alliance Defending Freedom.

“This is a complete vindication of the rights of our students to be able to participate as student-teachers in a public school district without fear of religious discrimination,” said ACU President Len Munsil. “We obtained everything we wanted in this new agreement, without any sacrifice or compromise to our beliefs and our university’s religious purpose.”

Attorney David Cortman, an ADF senior counsel and vice president of U.S. litigation, added that WESD “did the right thing” in settling the case “at a time when a critical shortage of qualified, caring teachers exists.”

In a statement, the school district’s governing board president, Nikkie Gomez-Whaley, said WESD was pleased to see the case ended.

“We look forward to continuing the work of creating welcoming and accessible education spaces that meet the needs of our students, staff and community,” she said.

The WESD governing board voted 5-0 at a Feb. 23 meeting to break off the student teaching arrangement. Members of the governing board said the mere presence of evangelical Christians made the district unsafe for LGBTQ people in the schools.

“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,” said board member Tamillia Valenzuela, who describes herself as “a bilingual, disabled, neurodivergent Queer Black Latina” on the WESD website. She said the arrangement with ACU “makes me feel like I could not be safe in this in this school district.”

Realtor and school board member Kyle Clayton at the February meeting accused the school of “teaching, as they say, with a biblical lens” and that “proselytizing is embedded into how they teach,” citing ACU’s statement of faith.

Mr. Clayton said, “I would never want 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 teach through … their biblical lens.”