Being a Christian in the modern world is pretty dang tough. Especially in 21st-century America where it truly seems that the vast majority of our culture has lost its ever-loving minds. I mean you have transgenderism, rampant homosexuality, and a number of other sexually deviant behaviors being taught to young school kids for goodness sake. It’s getting wild out there.
One of the main ways that progressives have managed to create this kind of culture is by using public schools for indoctrination rather than education. Thus, anything that might get in the way of their plot to create generations of loyal statists is viewed as an enemy that needs to be taken down. That includes homeschooling and Christian schools.
And we’re seeing that playing out in California right now, as a school district is trying to get a Christian school shutdown by stating concerns over the building’s safety, accusations which the Christian school says are baseless.
According to a report from the Daily Wire, “The Ventura Unified School District (VUSD), just northwest of Los Angeles, is demanding Ventura County Christian School (VCCS) vacate the school’s premises, claiming one of the buildings is structurally unsafe for students.”
The report then said, “On August 19, three days before school was supposed to start, the district told the school that the facility was dangerous and that it would not renew the school’s lease for the property.”
“We understand the difficult timing of this,” Marieanne Quiroz, a district spokeswoman, went on to tell the Ventura County Star. “We did and continue to do our very best to make accommodations for the school.”
“They have put their blood, sweat and tears into the school for 30 years. I understand that devotion and sense of loss,” Sabrena Rodriguez, the district board president, stated just last weekend. “But as a public agency, the school district has very clear direction for the decisions they have to make.”
The Christian school is not taking these accusations lightly at all. Instead, they are pushing back by saying the claims being made by the district are unfounded.
“We just do not agree that the classroom is unsafe. We feel that other intentions are at play,” school principal Perry Geue went on to say in his response to the school district.
The school then decided to rebel against the district on August 29, and welcomed their students back to class, kicking off the school year. As you might imagine, the school district was not at all happy about this. They sent the Christian school a three-day notice to vacate the premises.
“The school has leased the buildings from the district for more than two decades, but the lease expired in June. At the time, the district told VCCS it wanted to do another safety analysis before agreeing to another long-term lease. As recently as September 2021, the district commissioned a safety analysis that found the school was safe for occupancy,” the Daily Wire reported.
During negotiations concerning the lease, VCCS noticed that the school district just so happened to slide a “Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity” clause into it, which the school worried might keep it from hiring only Christian teachers or would prevent them from teaching a Christian curriculum. Makes you wonder if this wasn’t some of the impetus behind other actions the school district has taken, doesn’t it? Remember, if you teach a worldview that is different from the one being pushed by progressives, you’re the enemy.
“We could potentially be forced to hire teachers who don’t hold to a Christian worldview,” the principal remarked concerning the clause.
“The school asked the district to delete that paragraph but went ahead and paid two months’ rent, thinking they still had an agreement, according to their lawyer. Then three days before school was supposed to start, the district informed VCCS that the new June safety report found the school building was unsafe and they would not renew the lease,” the report continued.
The safety report, however, didn’t actually recommend that the building be vacated. The recommendations it did make were for a closer inspection and installing some additional supports and bracing. The school responded to the safety report by hiring another independent firm to take a look at the school building. Nothing wrong with getting a second opinion, especially when leftists seem bent on shutting down your school, right?
“’While further study of the building is prudent, nothing on-site or in the recommendations by the [district-commissioned report] warrants vacating the facility at this time,”’ stated the school-commissioned report,” the Daily Wire reported.
An attorney representing the Christian school, Ron Bamieh, also called the claims by the school district “baseless” and “completely disingenuous,” noting they likely have other motivations for their attempt to shut down the school.
“VCCS has been at that location for 22 years with no issues or concerns ever being raised about the safety of the school,” Bamieh said in a comment made to The Daily Wire.
“This is subterfuge,” Bamieh remarked. “VUSD just lacks the courage to be perceived as closing a Christian school because they want to sell that property so the City can build low-cost housing: or because they know those kids will have no reasonable alternative but to re-enroll in public school and they will benefit from the boost of enrollment of 200 kids in their school system.”
Keep this school’s fight for religious liberty and the right to operate their facility in your prayers, folks. They need it. It takes a lot of power to fight against a big machine like this.
