San Francisco – Today, in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, a jury found against Redwood Christian Schools in their nearly 10-year effort to build and run a school on its own property in Alameda County. 

 

“We lost round one, but it’s only round one,” said Derek Gaubatz, Director of Litigation for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.  The Becket Fund represents Redwood in the case, along with trial counsel Coddington, Hicks, & Danforth of Redwood City, CA. “We will go the distance for this school and its students, and we’re confident that once Redwood’s whole story is heard, we will prevail.”

 

Jurors did not get to hear evidence that County staff doubted the legality of the County's position, nor did they hear evidence that staff hid their interpretations from County decision makers.  Jurors also did not get to hear evidence about the County's unequal treatment of Redwood in comparison to local public schools.

 

In the preceding 30 years, Redwood’s junior/senior high school facilities had bounced around a variety of locations and are currently being held in an undersized, rented public school building, from which Redwood may be evicted on just seven months notice. In the two locations Redwood occupied before that, Redwood made substantial financial commitments to renovate the deteriorating buildings.  In both cases, Redwood was forced off the property and was never reimbursed for the renovations.

 

“These are good people who have faced so much hostility for committing the apparently intolerable act of trying to build a school on land previously used as a dumping ground,” said Gaubatz.  “The County has used every trick in the book and spent millions of taxpayer dollars to keep these children from getting the education they want and deserve.”

 

Plans to file an appeal of the judgment are underway.  The trial began on February 12, 2007.  The case number is C01-4282 SC ADR.