Allow students the freedom to participate in school & church related events

For the past six years, Central Baptist Church has been building an after school ministry for grades k-12. Until the fall of 2011 the attendance at this ministry was mainly K-6th graders.

The school supported the ministry by dropping off the elementary students (with parental permission) at the church after school. By the spring of 2012, the ministry began to reach the 7-12th graders. This is when the school stopped their full support. The school forced the students to choose between school and church by scheduling extracurricular practice during this ministry and enforcing punishment on the students when they chose church instead of school.

There were other times that the extracurricular activities could have been rescheduled to accommodate the ministry due to the fact that the ministry was taking place at the best possible time for optimal attendance. Also, cheer-leading practice for the junior high was moved intentionally to the ministry time slot so those students could no longer attend church. When the ministry leadership approached the school leadership, a compromise was made to allow the k-8th graders to attend the ministry from 4-5:30pm without school practice conflicts and the 9-12th grade to be released to attend the ministry from 5:30-7pm. The school did not keep their end of the compromise.

Therefore, this petition will give the parents and community a voice to urge the school to hold up their end of the compromise.