From the "State vs. Church" Dept.: Architect Laura Evans, a Prospect Heights resident, attended church last Sunday in a public high school in Park Slope (John Jay High School). The New York Times quotes her: "It’s different from what I grew up with – the suburban church with a
steeple and a chapel … it’s not the type of building, but it’s the people who
make a church."
Turns out that Bloomberg has issues with churches that rent space from schools: "The churches – often desperate
for space – say the arrangement is only fair. But the practice,
generally accepted across the country, has run into opposition from
some parents in New York City, and the Bloomberg administration is
planning to challenge the court ruling."
The church Laura attends, Park Slope Presbyterian Church, is one of the religious organizations that now meet in New
York City public schools. In 2002, a federal court said the
city "had to provide space in school buildings to religious institutions
just as it did for other community groups," according to the New York Times. "The churches typically rent
on Sundays, when students are not present, and reimburse the city for
the cost of custodial services."
LISA GRUMET (senior lawyer in the city’s corporation counsel’s office) told the New York Times that the city thinks this practice violates the separation of church and state: "’We are concerned about having public schools used by religious
congregations as houses of worship … The diversity of this city is one of its greatest strengths … and this is why we are concerned about having the neighborhood
school, the public school, identified with a particular religious
congregation."
Robert Latham has two young children and lives down the street from John Jay High School, where Park Slope Presbyterian meets. According to the New York Times, he thinks that arrangement "blurs the lines between church and state": "There’s always
notices and secondary communications that spill over … It doesn’t give parents and children choices."