Lewis-Palmer School District 38 did not violate the First Amendment rights of a 2006 graduate when it disciplined her for mentioning Jesus Christ in a valedictorian speech, a federal judge has ruled.

The former student, Erica Corder, said Thursday that she is considering an appeal.

U.S. District Court Judge Walker D. Miller dismissed the lawsuit Corder filed in August 2007, accusing the school district of violating free speech and free religious expression.

Corder was one of several top-performing students chosen to share in Lewis-Palmer High School's 2006 commencement speech. The students' remarks were screened in advance, but Corder changed her message on the spot to encourage the audience to consider the Christian faith. She was allowed to graduate, but the principal first required her to write a letter explaining her actions and acknowledging the remarks were her personal views, not the district's.

Fifteen months later she sued, saying that the requirement to write the letter 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. She is represented at no cost by Liberty Counsel, an East Coast law firm that takes up religious causes.

In his July 30 ruling dismissing the lawsuit, Miller disagreed with her legal team's arguments on all points. He reviewed and explained numerous high-court cases involving schools, religion and speech. Regarding freedom of speech, he wrote: "Applying those standards to this case, I conclude that the valedictorian speech at the school's graduation was not private speech in a limited public forum but rather school-sponsored speech. ... The school, by permitting its highest achieving students (to) give short speeches, did not open its facilities for ‘indiscriminate use.'"

He also found the case was moot, since Corder graduated and is no longer subject to the district's authority.

"The school district is pleased that the suit has been dismissed as anticipated," Lewis-Palmer spokeswoman Robin Adair said in an e-mailed statement. "We have always maintained that actions and decisions in the situation were justified and this dismissal by the court confirms that."

Corder, though, said her fight may not be over. "I want to continue to do what God wants me to do, and he wants me to keep going," she said.

The district has paid a $1,000 insurance deductible to cover its legal fees. The amount of those fees was not available Thursday.

Corder was the last of 15 students chosen to speak in May 2006. In her 30-second speech, she said:

"We are all capable of standing firm and expressing our own beliefs, which is why I need to tell you about someone who loves you more than you could ever imagine. He died for you on a cross over 2,000 years ago, yet was resurrected and is living in heaven. 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."

The family says Corder was first asked by then-principal Mark Brewer to write an apology to get her diploma. She refused, but agreed to write an explanation. "I'm sorry I did not share my plans with Mr. Brewer or other valedictorians ahead of time," she wrote.

Corder, now 20, is working as a raft guide in Texas Creek this summer and is a student at Wheaton College in Illinois.

She said Thursday that she doesn't regret the lawsuit, but she was saddened to hear about threats made against her former principal.

DETAILS
The lawsuit accused the school district of violating free speech and free religious expression.