Attorneys Allege Washington School Reprimanded Student for Sharing Gospel Tracts

March 26, 2026

Lawyers for a Washington state middle school student say the girl was improperly disciplined by school officials for handing out Gospel tracts to her classmates.

According to Christianity Daily, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which is representing the student, alleges that the vice principal of the unnamed middle school, removed the girl from class and told her she was not allowed to share religious materials on campus.

Reportedly, the student was distributing tracts obtained from the Gospel House Tract Society during lunch and break periods and asking classmates for permission before doing so.

In response to the vice principal’s directive, the student questioned why other students were allowed to express their views while she was not permitted to share her faith.

According to the ACLJ’s March 20 demand letter, the vice principal responded: “Students may share opinions, but they may not share religious beliefs.”

School administrators allowed students to leave campus to participate in protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as an example of acceptable expression, while maintaining that distributing religious literature was prohibited.

Attorneys for the ACLJ argue that the school’s actions violated the student’s constitutional rights.

ACLJ attorneys Nathan Moelker and Christina Compagnone explained in their letter, “The prohibition against the mere discussion of God or the giving of an item displaying a religious reference to a friend and classmate blatantly interferes with [her] First Amendment rights as a student.”

In their letter to school officials, the attorneys cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), which held that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Christianity Daily reported that this is not the first dispute involving the student and the same district.

In 2019, when the student was in second grade, school officials reportedly conducted routine backpack searches to confiscate Christian tracts, treating them as prohibited items.

The ACLJ intervened at that time, issuing, a demand letter and ultimately reaching a formal agreement in 2022 affirming that the school district must remain neutral toward religion and may not discriminate against religious viewpoints.

Photo: top, Credit: Unsplash/Jametiene Reskp