Liberty Counsel
NEWS RELEASE

Contact: PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT - 800-671-1776

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 22, 2006

School Decides to Cancel Diversity Day Rather than
Include Viewpoint of Christians and Former Homosexuals

Viroqua, WI - Viroqua High School officials chose to cancel tomorrow's Diversity Day activities after Liberty Counsel presented legal precedent requiring inclusion of the viewpoints of Christians and former homosexuals.

The school scheduled sessions for the students that presented the viewpoints of Hmong, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, African-Americans, homosexuals, Latinos, Buddhists, the physically disadvantaged, and the economically disadvantaged, but not Christians or former homosexuals. Diversity Day would have been held tomorrow, March 23, 2006.

After a school official stated that the viewpoints of Christians and former homosexuals would be excluded, a resident contacted Liberty Counsel on behalf of many other concerned Viroqua residents.

On March 9, Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the District Administrator, explaining that the censorship of the viewpoints of Christians and former homosexuals violated the Establishment Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment equal protection guarantee. Liberty Counsel sent another letter on March 14 to the District Administrator and Board of Education. Two days later, the District Administrator confirmed in a telephone call that Diversity Day had been cancelled.

In 2004, the Board also cancelled Diversity Day in response to a citizen petition, but then reinstated it after spring elections changed the members on the Board. Unlike 2004, however, this time school officials were confronted with precedent from a federal district court in Michigan that ruled unconstitutional a similar exclusion from a Diversity Day panel.

Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated: "We are pleased that the District cancelled Diversity Day instead of censoring the viewpoints of Christians and former homosexuals. One of the Diversity Day organizers labeled the former homosexual's viewpoint as 'non-positive.' This is yet another attempt to indoctrinate our youth with the harmful message that homosexuals cannot change. While touting the message of tolerance, homosexual activists refuse to be tolerant of opposing viewpoints. Our youth deserve to know the truth about homosexuality - that people can choose to overcome same-sex attractions and that acting on those attractions results in devastating physical, mental, and spiritual consequences."