A Washington-based secular atheist authorized group is suing a state company in West Virginia over $5 million in public funds that it has permitted for a Catholic school in Ohio.
With members within the state, the American Humanist Affiliation filed the lawsuit within the Circuit Court docket of Kanawha County final week over the West Virginia Water Growth Authority’s October approval of a $5 million grant to the School of St. Joseph the Employee.
The Catholic establishment of upper training primarily based in close by Steubenville, Ohio, presents a bachelor’s diploma in Catholic research together with building trades coaching.
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The varsity utilized for a $2.15 million grant to assist “create a mission-driven, non-profit building and actual property improvement firm in West Virginia.” The corporate would make use of college students in northern West Virginia and supply instructional alternatives.
The varsity additionally requested for $1.65 million to assist “improve enrollment and scholarships for West Virginian college students,” $200,000 to determine a department of the faculty in West Virginia and $1 million for “advocacy initiatives.”
The secular group characterised the West Virginia Water Growth Authority’s motion as a violation of “the Assure of Freedom of Faith codified within the West Virginia Structure.”
A replica of assembly minutes from the West Virginia Water Growth Authority’s Oct. 10 board assembly exhibits that the School of St. Joseph the Employee submitted an software for $5 million in Financial Enhancement Grant Funding from the company on Oct. 4.
A replica of the applying obtained by The Parkersburg Information and Sentinel exhibits that the cash will go towards the development of a “actual property improvement and building firm” in Weirton, West Virginia, that can make use of its college students in “good work” for the aim of “revitalizing the Ohio Valley.”
Further methods the faculty would use the cash embrace working to determine a “self-sufficient continuing-education operation figuring out of Weirton” centered on offering college students with a “bioethics certificates for persevering with training within the medical and psychotherapy fields” in addition to the development of a analysis middle that may “assist broadly life-affirming coverage in West Virginia.”
The AHA is looking for a declaration that West Virginia’s grant approval violated Article III, Part 15 of the West Virginia Structure and an order granting the atheist group all “prices and cheap attorneys charges included on this motion.”
The group argues that the School of St. Joseph the Employee has recognized its “curriculum, formation, and even our enterprise mannequin” as “radically Catholic from high to backside.” The West Virginia Structure states, “No man shall be compelled to frequent or assist any non secular worship, place or ministry in any respect.”
In a press release asserting the lawsuit, AHA Govt Director Fish Stark asserted, “Humanists consider deeply within the freedom of conscience, and this try to drive West Virginia taxpayers to fund non secular exercise is an offense in opposition to the Structure and customary sense.”
“As a former West Virginia resident, I consider ‘Mountaineers Are At all times Free’ means your religion is what you are promoting — nobody else, and definitely not the federal government, has the appropriate to push it on you,” he added.
The school’s founder, Jacob Imam, pushed again on the complaints in opposition to its grant software when talking with WTOV.
“We heard that there was an keen alternative to see actual financial improvement in West Virginia,” Imam mentioned. “We thought, ‘That is our neighborhood.’ We really feel that we’re a part of the Ohio Valley and that’s this stunning space that we’re in.”
Responding to AHA’s criticism of its Catholic ideology, Imam requested if the varsity’s “ideology” performed any function within the “constructing, the selecting of buildings, any of the operations included within the ultimate accepted software?”
“I actually do not suppose that plumbing, masonry, and carpentry are ideological,” he mentioned. “That’s what we’re making an attempt to do. We’re making an attempt to construct stunning buildings. That’s one thing that does not matter the place you might be on the political spectrum, that all of us recognize seeing stunning and well-built buildings round us.”
The ACLU of West Virginia, which is representing the AHA in its lawsuit in opposition to the state company, contends that West Virginia taxpayers should not be compelled to “fund its mission.”
“Tens of hundreds of West Virginians marvel day-after-day the place they’ll get clear consuming water,” ACLU-WV Authorized Director Aubrey Sparks mentioned. “The School of Saint Joseph the Employee has each proper to exist and to teach its college students according to its non secular worldview, however to drive the taxpayers of West Virginia to fund its mission is wholly inappropriate and unconstitutional.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Put up. He will be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
