EDUCATION
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020
Hermiston Christian School
alleges discrimination in lawsuit
Morrow County School District
to start hybrid learning Oct. 28
By ANTONIO SIERRA
STAFF WRITER
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
A Hermiston private
school, with a total enroll-
ment of 51, is suing Gov.
Kate Brown and several
other state agencies with the
help of a well-heeled conser-
vative legal organization.
Attorneys
from
the
Arizona-based
Alliance
Defending Freedom fi led
a complaint on behalf of
Hermiston Christian School
in federal court in Pendleton
on Oct. 16. The complaint
alleges that the governor was
violating the school’s consti-
tutional rights by forcing it
to remain closed during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“After 41 years of faithful
service, Hermiston Christian
School … could be forced
to shut its doors for good
unless the court stops an
obvious case of discrimina-
tion: Defendants’ COVID-
19 orders and guidance gen-
erally prohibit in-person
instruction but grant a ‘small
school’ exception to public
schools, while denying the
same exception to private
religious schools … in Uma-
tilla County,” the attorneys
wrote in the introduction.
The lawyers wrote that
the state’s actions violated
the school’s First Amend-
ment right to freedom of
religion and 14th Amend-
ment right to due process.
In the complaint, the
alliance draws compari-
sons between Hermiston
Christian School and Ukiah
School, a public school
with similar enrollment in
the same county, albeit 80
miles away. While Ukiah
was included in a list of
small and remote schools
that were allowed to reopen
for in-person instruction,
no private schools in the
county, all of them religious,
were afforded the same
opportunity.
The fi ling also lays out a
timeline of changing reopen-
ing standards, the law-
Morrow County School
District is allowing any
student who wants to
return to an in-person
classroom to do so starting
Wednesday, Oct. 28.
The district had previ-
ously been offering lim-
ited in-person instruction
for two hours a day to stu-
dents in certain catego-
ries, such as special edu-
cation students or those
without internet access at
home. While most school
districts in Oregon are still
limited to that model (if
they meet the standards for
opening at all), the state
laid out special guidelines
for rural counties with
fewer than 30,000 resi-
dents and an average den-
sity of six or fewer people
per square mile.
For those counties — a
short list which includes
Morrow County — schools
can return to a “hybrid”
model of learning that
allows any students who
wishes to attend classes
in person the opportu-
nity to do so, while those
who wish to continue par-
ticipating virtually can do
so, if a county has fewer
than 30 confi rmed cases
of COVID-19 over a three
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
A sign directs visitors to the entrance of the Hermiston
Christian School in Hermiston on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020.
suit alleging that the state
had advised private schools
they could reopen in the fall
before changing course on
July 29.
The school’s lawyers
argue that the governor’s
administration was moti-
vated by a fear that allow-
ing private schools to remain
open, while most public
schools stayed close, would
lead to major disenrollment
from the public school. One
Brown staffer allegedly said
it would cause a “mass exo-
dus” in a conference call
with administrators.
The alliance is asking
the court to not only issue a
temporary restraining order
that would allow Hermiston
Christian School to reopen,
but also grant the school
damages for the social dis-
tancing measures it installed
in its facilities and for the
potential enrollees who
decided to go elsewhere
because of the closure.
The attorneys argued
that in-person instruction
was not only essential to the
school keeping its lights on,
but also its affi liate church’s
ability to practice its faith.
“In-person education is
essential for (the school’s)
free exercise of religion,”
the complaint states. “(The
school’s) mission is to teach
its students what it means to
be a disciple of Jesus Christ,
not only through classroom
education, but also through
prayer, worship, and reli-
gious formation that occurs
in-person.”
The alliance not only
sued Brown, but also the
leaders of several state
agencies, including Oregon
State Police, Oregon Health
Authority and the Oregon
Department of Education.
All, including the governor’s
offi ce, declined to comment
or didn’t return a request for
comment.
The legal team also
sued the heads of Umatilla
County Public Health and
the Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Offi ce. Public Health
Director
Joe
Fiumara
declined to comment, while
Sheriff Terry Rowan said
he was “shocked’’ because
his deputies were never
involved in this issue, but
declined to comment further.
Ryan Tucker, a senior
counsel for the alliance,
said they needed to include
law enforcement agencies in
the lawsuit because of their
capacity to enforce the gov-
ernor’s orders even if they
hadn’t enforced them yet.
While
the
alliance
equated Ukiah School and
Hermiston Christian School,
the pandemic has affected
each community disparately.
Umatilla County Public
Health has reported between
0-4 COVID-19 cases in the
Ukiah area, while the Herm-
iston ZIP code has more than
1,600, according to OHA.
Despite these differences,
Tucker said the state has
already well established its
case that the state was mak-
ing its decision based on
religious qualifi cations.
week period. The local
health department must
also determine that the
county is not experienc-
ing “community spread,”
defi ned as cases that con-
tact tracers can’t deter-
mine the origin.
Morrow County’s past
three weeks saw 11 cases,
then 8, then 5, for a total
of 24 confi rmed cases over
three weeks. Superinten-
dent Dirk Dirksen said the
district decided jump on
the chance to return stu-
dents to the classroom
while it could.
“We can’t pass up this
opportunity,” he said.
Dirksen said schools
will have different sched-
ules under the hybrid
model, but in general,
elementary school stu-
dents will have in-per-
son learning in the morn-
ing with students choosing
to stay online watch-
ing the instruction over
video, while the after-
noon will involve teachers
working with all students
online in small groups or
individually.
Secondary school stu-
dents choosing to return
to the classroom will stay
in a single home room all
day, with that teacher act-
ing as a tutor as they inter-
act with other teachers
over video.
“With COVID, we
don’t want those kids
moving around (the build-
ing),” Dirksen said. “It’s a
lot easier to track for the
local health department.”
Umatilla County, with
a population more than
twice the limit of 30,000,
does not fall under the
same metrics for reopen-
ing schools. For most dis-
tricts, including Herm-
iston School District,
current state guidelines
say they can’t reopen to
all students until their
county sees fewer than 10
cases per 100,000 people
(about eight cases a week
in Umatilla County) for
three weeks in a row and
have a test positivity rate
of less than 5% for three
weeks in a row. Oregon as
a whole must also experi-
ence a less than 5% posi-
tivity rate.
According to the Ore-
gon Health Authority’s
latest calculations from
Oct. 11 to Oct. 17, Uma-
tilla County recorded 88
cases — or 108.4 cases
per 100,000 residents —
and a test positivity rate
of 14.5%. Since test pos-
itivity rate started being
recorded July 26, Umatilla
County’s lowest recorded
rate was 12%.
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