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Texas judge issues injunction allowing cheerleaders to display religious banners

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Kountze High School banner

A Texas judge issued an injunction allowing cheerleaders to display religious banners. This temporary injunction will allow Kountze High School cheerleaders to continue to display banners stating Christian messages at their football games. The temporary injunction replaces a temporary restraining order that had put in place to allow the cheerleaders to continue the use of their banners.

The issuance of this order by no means puts an end to this dispute. Judge Steven Thomas set a trial date June 24, 2013, to make a final decision on the merits of the lawsuit. Cheerleaders have had run through banners reading  “I can do all these through Christ who strengthens me,” and “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

The main issue in this case appears to be the nature of the cheerleading group itself. Rather than being a state sponsored activity, the cheer group has little to do with the school other than the students attend it. They pay for their own uniforms, utilize their parents as coaches, and lead their own practices during non-school hours. While there are faculty advisers, the

two faculty “sponsors,” Tonya Moffett and Beth Richardson, who are also parents of two cheerleaders, supervise the team to ensure a safe, respectful, and orderly environment. The faculty sponsors are present at the practices in only a nonparticipatory, custodial capacity.
Additionally, the decision seems to place weight on the fact that the cheerleaders rotate the responsibility of rotating the responsibility of what appears on the message. Thus, their attorneys are able to argue the messages are personal rather than group sponsored speech.
Furthermore, no district monies are expended for the purchase of supplies. The banners are not required by the school.
Finally, some years ago Texas passed a law, the Religious Views Anti-Discrimination Act of 2007, which was passed with the intent of helping to protect student religious speech by requiring school districts to adopt disclaimers separating student speech at school-sponsored events from school sponsored messages.

Interestingly, at the time of the mid-October decision, Kountze High’s football had a 5-1 record, since the decision came down, the Lions have gone 0-4. Given the religious stature of Texas high school football itself, one wonders whether Kountze High cheer leaders might not voluntarily discontinue their lawsuit.

 

Kountze High School cheerleader run through banner (Click for video)