Student threatens to sue school over rejected Bible parking space

A student at a public high school in New York is taking legal action after school administrators allegedly denied designs for her personal senior parking space because they featured Bible verses and other religious imagery, claiming it would necessitate allowing satanic imagery on other students’ parking spaces.

Attorneys for Sabrina Steffens, a senior at Grand Island Senior High School near Buffalo, sent a demand letter on First Amendment grounds earlier this week, urging the school district to reverse its denial of her designs, according to a copy of the letter provided to The Christian Post by the First Liberty Institute.

The superintendent told CP in a statement that the Grand Island Central School District is reviewing the demand letter, but noted they have since paused the Aug. 14 deadline on the parking space designs as they discern their next steps.

Students pay a $50 fee and use their own supplies to create designs for their designated parking spaces, which must be approved by school staff, according to the letter.

Of the three designs Steffans submitted, two were reportedly rejected because of their overtly Christian content and Scripture quotations, which included a verse in which Jesus made an exclusive claim regarding Himself and salvation.

The first of Steffans’ proposed designs featured a cross, a heart, messages about God’s love and John 14:6, in which Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The letter recounted a meeting Steffans had with Principal Hillary Kretz-Harvey and Assistant Principal Jaime Peld about her potential parking space adornment, during which they told her they would have to green-light satanic imagery in student parking spots if they approved her Christian ones.

“If we had to approve your cross, we’d have to approve a satanic symbol, and I wouldn’t want to attend a school like that,” the principals reportedly said, suggesting she disguise the cross symbol in her design as the letter T.

The second design they shot down incorporated “Let your light shine” from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:16 and God’s promise of hope from Jeremiah 29:11, which cited the chapter and verse. She also heeded the principals’ advice by using the cross as the T in the word “light.”

Her third proposed design, which was ultimately approved, retained “Let your light shine” with the surreptitious T-shaped cross and also proclaimed “He is King,” but featured no explicit biblical citation.

When Steffans asked Peld why she was facing pushback after having been allowed to include Scripture references on Bible Club posters at the school in the past, the assistant principal replied, “I just let that one slide,” according to the letter.

Kretz-Harvey reportedly approved Staffans’ third and final design without the Bible verses after “consulting with our district’s legal team,” who assured her she was aligned “with the guidelines for school-sponsored activities, which include maintaining a neutral stance on religious, political, and ideological content.”

Lawyers for Steffans argue that the school engaged in illegal viewpoint discrimination in clear violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. They cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent in the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines, which ruled public school students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” as long as their expression does not disrupt the educational environment.

Citing other Supreme Court rulings that reinforce the unconstitutional nature of excluding religious speech while permitting secular expression, her attorneys asserted that Steffans’ parking space activity is a limited public forum in which students are free to engage in private expression.

The attorneys demanded the school rescind its prohibition on explicit Scripture references in the parking spaces to allow Steffans to participate fully in the activity by expressing herself as she wishes.

If the school refuses, they said they are prepared “to seek all remedies in law and equity under the U.S. Constitution and federal statutes, including attorney fees and, due to the clearly established constitutional rights that are being violated, personal liability of the officials involved.”

Superintendent Brian Graham told CP his school district has received the demand letter and hopes to offer updates in the future.

“The Grand Island Central District received an 11-page letter on Tuesday from a Utah attorney working with a national religious liberty organization,” he said. “We obviously need time to review, digest, and discuss it. While we do so, we’re happy to pause the deadline for students to complete their parking space designs.”

“We hope to have an update once our process is complete,” he added.