Lewis-Palmer grad appeals ruling on her 'Jesus' speech
A former Lewis-Palmer High School student is pressing on with what she sees as a fight for free speech, after she was disciplined by her alma mater for encouraging others to get to know "Jesus Christ" during her graduation speech.
Erica Corder filed an appeal on Thursday with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver after a Denver district court judge dismissed her suit against Lewis-Palmer School District 38 in July. The court has not yet accepted the appeal.
The brief was filed by Liberty Counsel, a legal advocacy group dedicated to defending "religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family," according to its Web site. Liberty Counsel is representing Corder at no cost.
The dispute began at Corder's 2006 graduation when she stood before the school and said, in part, "...his name is Jesus Christ. If you don't already know him personally I encourage you to find out more about the sacrifice he made for you so that you now have the opportunity to live in eternity with him."
Those words came as a surprise to then-principal Mark Brewer, because Corder had delivered a different speech to him for his approval before the graduation ceremony. After the ceremony, Corder was told she would not receive her diploma unless she apologized to the school community, said the lawsuit.
Corder complied, and her apology - "I realize that, had I asked ahead of time, I would not have been allowed to say what I did" - was e-mailed to the high school community.
Corder graduated and received her diploma. But 15 months later, in August 2007, she sued the school district, saying that her coerced apology and the pre-screening of the speeches were unconstitutional. Her family also accused the district of treating religious and nonreligious speech differently as a violation of the equal protection clause.
U.S. District Court Judge Walker D. Miller dismissed the lawsuit on July 30, writing that the graduation speech "was not private speech in a limited public forum but rather school-sponsored speech."
He also found the case was moot, since Corder graduated and is no longer subject to the district's authority. She is now a junior at Wheaton College in Illinois.
In a press release issued Friday, Liberty Counsel founder Mathew Staver said: "The school district had no right to coerce Erica to speak against her will when she was no longer a student. The school district compounded its unconstitutional censorship of religious viewpoints by forcing an exemplary alumnus to ‘confess' to the school's own crime. ... Students do not shed their right to free speech when they stand at the graduation podium."
But D-38 spokeswoman Robin Adair said Friday the judge's ruling in July was on point.
"The school district's actions were constitutionally appropriate, and the judge confirmed that when he dismissed the suit on all counts," Adair said.
Corder could not be reached for comment, and her father Steven Corder declined to talk about the case.
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