A Washington school district searched a little girl's backpack for Bibles when she was in second grade.
That same district just came after that same girl one more time.
What this district has done to that girl since second grade is now in front of a federal judge.
Highline Public Schools Has Violated This Christian Students First Amendment Rights Since Second Grade
Highline Public Schools serves the Burien area just south of Seattle – and since 2022, it has had a problem with one Christian girl.
That year, when she was a second grader at North Hill Elementary School, staff sent her to the principal's office more than ten times for talking about her faith at recess.
They searched her backpack – more than once – hunting for Bibles and religious materials.
The American Center for Law and Justice intervened on her behalf.
Highline eventually put it in writing: she was free to exercise her faith going forward.
That promise did not last.
The ACLJ sent two more demand letters in the years that followed – three total – and each time Highline denied it had done anything wrong.
This year at Sylvester Middle School, Vice Principal Lori McEwen pulled the same girl out of math class for quietly handing out Christian gospel tracts between classes – always asking permission first, never pushing anyone who said no.
The girl asked a straightforward question: why could her classmates walk off campus during school hours to join an anti-ICE protest but she could not hand out gospel literature?
McEwen's answer made it into the federal lawsuit for a reason.
Students may share opinions, McEwen said. They may not share religious beliefs.
That answer – from a taxpayer-funded school administrator – is the entire case in one sentence.
School Staff Concealed Her Religious Objection and Forced Her to Stay in a Mandatory Assembly
On May 29, the entire student body was marched into a mandatory assembly with no warning to parents.
What followed was hours of content demanding students embrace ideas that run directly against Christian teaching – slides on 72 gender identities, drag material, student coming-out stories, and a step-by-step guide to becoming an ally.
The presentation told students they were now responsible for "creating a moral standard" in their community.
The girl began to cry.
She told a teacher she was a Christian and asked to leave.
The teacher told assembly organizers the girl needed the restroom – concealing her religious objection entirely.
Then the same teacher ordered her back inside.
"You have no choice," she was told, "because me and Ms. Holmes told the people in charge that you had to use the bathroom."
She sat through the rest of the program in tears, eyes fixed on the floor.
The American Center for Law and Justice filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Named defendants include Highline Public Schools and Vice Principal Lori McEwen.
The complaint alleges violations of the First and 14th Amendments and the Washington state constitution – free speech, free exercise of religion, and the fundamental right of parents to direct how their children are raised.
Highline Ignored Three ACLJ Warnings and Stripped This Family of Their Parental Rights
Three demand letters. Three chances to stop. Each time, Highline looked the other way.
School officials knew this family's religious convictions. They knew the parents had previously opted their daughter out of similar programming.
Rather than give notice and respect that decision, they eliminated the notice entirely.
The Supreme Court settled this in Mahmoud v. Taylor – public schools cannot compel students to sit through gender ideology content that conflicts with their religious beliefs without giving parents notice and an opt-out option.
Highline's response to that ruling was to stop giving parents notice at all.
The ACLJ has won cases like this before. In November 2025, they forced a school that banned a student Jesus club to reverse course within days of receiving a demand letter. In October 2025, a Minnesota school district that charged Christian clubs fees it waived for secular clubs backed down after the ACLJ stepped in.
Courts have not been kind to districts that cannot explain why anti-ICE protests count as protected student opinion while Chrisitan belief does not.
Highline had every chance to stop. They chose not to.
Now a federal judge gets to decide whether a school that lied to keep a crying Christian girl in a gender ideology assembly gets to keep doing it.
Sources:
- American Center for Law and Justice, "ACLJ Files Lawsuit Against School After Christian Student Told She Had 'No Choice' but To Violate Her Faith," ACLJ.org, July 8, 2026.
- Jason Rantz, "Highline Sued After Girl Told 'No Choice' on Faith," Seattle Red, July 10, 2026.
- The Highline Journal, "Parent Sues Highline Over Student's Religious Rights," TheHighlineJournal.com, July 9, 2026.
- Washington Times, "Children Deserve Education, Not Gender Ideology," WashingtonTimes.com, June 24, 2026.
