The person who led a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting at a Mansfield high school campus in September was a pastor of a local church, according to information received through an open records request.
School attendance records show that a man named Sylvester Stemley showed up on the Lake Ridge High School campus the day a student said he was forced by a teacher to attend the religious meeting.
Stemley signed in at 10:12 a.m. on Sept. 30 and signed out an hour later, according to that day’s visitor registry. “FCA” was listed as his reason for being on campus.
According to the website, Stemley is a student pastor at TCAL Church in Mansfield. He and the church did not respond to multiple emails and calls seeking comment.
He led the students in prayer and asked them if they accepted Jesus Christ, said Jon Luna, the student’s father who expressed discomfort when he was told he had to attend the meeting.
Having a religious leader lead these types of events on a public school campus amounts to a “government-sponsored worship service,” said Hirsh Joshi, legal officer at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which works to promote and protecting the separation between churches. and state.
That the meeting “is not student-led lends much more credence to the idea that this meeting was a ‘government speech’ or a government-endorsed program,” Joshi said. “That should send shivers down everyone’s spine. This is a pretty textbook violation of the Establishment Clause.”
The Establishment Clause consists of the first ten words of the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It is followed by what is known as the Free Exercise Clause, which prohibits the government from banning citizens from whatever religion they practice.
The Free Exercise Clause has been used to justify student-led religious activities on public school campuses, such as FCA and See You at the Pole.
But allowing an on-campus pastor to lead a worship service that students are required to attend during school hours could be problematic for the district, according to Stephen Dubner, a Lewisville attorney who represents school districts across Texas.
“To have someone bring it in and then tell the kids you have to be there, and the kids don’t have an option not to be there, and it happens during the school day, is something I wouldn’t recommend to them. do,” he said.
The employee responsible for allowing Stemley on campus to lead the meeting could face lawsuits for violating the student’s constitutional rights, Dubner said, like the district itself, “if they had a policy that allowed that during the school day.”
A district spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Math teacher Caleb Chambliss told the student to attend via the school’s messaging system, according to a screenshot of the message shared by the boy’s father. It said: “Go to the theater (PAC) for advice.” Chambliss did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the school district told the Star-Telegram in October that it had reviewed the communications students received and found that they did not include the words “required” or “required.”
“Participation in FCA is a voluntary activity for Lake Ridge students who choose to participate,” the district said in an emailed statement at the time. “The ability to attend FCA during advising is a recent scheduling change on campus. In the future, the teacher will ensure that students understand that their participation in such a meeting is completely optional, and that alternatives will be made clear.”
Luna, who does not practice any religion, said he has no plans to file a lawsuit for now.
Luna does not consider the gathering a government-sponsored worship service. For him, the issue comes down to equal access to school campuses for all religious practitioners.
“Everyone should have the opportunity to do that and give them the opportunity to involve their pastors,” he said.
Barring that option, no clergy-led religious activities should be allowed on campus, Luna said.
“If they only want this for one religion, then none of them should be there,” he said.
