A school board in Alberta, Canada has voted to close a Christian academy last week, following controversy over censorship of certain biblical references in the student handbook.
Board members of the Battle River School Division (BRSD) voted unanimously to officially shut down the Cornerstone Christian Academy, a year after it terminated the agreement with the school's parents-representation society over issues regarding scriptural references.
The CBC reported that biblical references in question were meant to be included in the handbook, but the BRSD asked the academy to remove the verses in January 2017, saying it might contravene the provincial human rights code.
School board chairman Kendall Severson said that the issue has since been dealt with and claimed that the decision to shut down the academy was due to the lack of cooperation. He pointed out that the BRSD is still facing an ongoing lawsuit filed by the the Cornerstone Christian Academy.
He noted that the legal action came after the BRSD and the academy failed to reach an agreement on a communications protocol that would determine how to settle disputes between the parties.
"I guess it was the unwillingness to work together for a communications protocol on how we communicate with each other and dealing with issues that arise," Severson said, according to the National Post. "We can't work together with an organization that's got legal action against us, and not willing to come together and work on an agreement".
The academy, which has about 170 students, has filed an application for an injunction to stop the school closure.
The parents-representation society is being represented by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) in the legal proceedings. JCCF attorney James Kitchen said that the injunction will allow Cornerstone to present its arguments at a judicial review.
"There's been no allegations of educational deficiency or any complaints regarding Cornerstone," Kitchen said. "It's unfortunate, and in fact unlawful, for a school division to accept a school to be an alternative program, a religious alternative program, and then censor and prohibit certain beliefs and religious practices that those religious programs then engage in."
Cornerstone, which joined the school division about a decade ago, plans to reopen as a private school in the fall if its lawsuit fails in court.
Some parents have already started considering other options in case the school closes permanently.
Gabe Vorhees, who has four children who attend Cornerstone, noted that some parents have opted for home schooling while others are driving their children to schools that are 40 to 45 minutes away. "None of us really want to be part of this school division," he contended.
He noted that his family never had a problem with BRSD until it decided to shut down Cornerstone.
"We are people of faith and we're a community of faith and we choose to forgive, but we also have rights," he added.
