(RNS) — A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that a public school district is not liable for the actions of a teacher who allegedly proselytized to students in a public school classroom, leading a Muslim student to convert to Christianity.
Judge Iain D. Johnston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, ruled that officials of School District 300 Community Unit were not responsible for the teacher’s actions, as the teacher was disciplined and then resigned after being confronted by these public school officials.
The ruling is the latest twist in a long-running legal dispute over religion at Jacobs High School in Algonquin, Illinois – a northwest suburb of Chicago – and, in particular, over the conversion of a teenage student Muslim.
Harry D. Jacobs High School in Algonquin, Illinois (Image courtesy of Google Maps)
Yosuf Chaudhry and Amena Alvi, who are Muslim, sued Community Unit School District 300 in 2020 after learning their then-teenage daughter had converted to Christianity while a student at Jacobs. While at school, their daughter, referred to in the complaint as “BD”, allegedly met a teacher named Pierre Thorsen, who taught world history and world religions and also sponsored a group of Christian students called Uprising.
Thorsen, a popular teacher who was named Educator of the Year for Kane County, Illinois in 2015, was also named in the complaint.
According to the complaint, Thorsen, who taught apologetics classes at local churches, allegedly promoted Christianity at uprising meetings and criticized other religions.
“Thorsen repeatedly engaged in conversations with students before, during and after school where he defended his faith and questioned, belittled or discounted other faiths,” the complaint alleges.
After the couple’s daughter converted, Thorsen also allegedly introduced her to members of his church who offered to take her in if her family disowned her because of her change of religion. She also received a Bible from her teacher, according to a revised version of the couple’s complaint, filed in 2023.
The couple alleged that the district should have known that Thorsen had been promoting Christianity for years and using his classroom to proselytize to students.
In his response to the lawsuit filed by Chaudhry and Alvi, Thorsen acknowledged giving lectures in churches but denied using his role as a teacher to try to convert students. He also denied criticizing non-Christian faiths, but admitted giving a Bible to the couple’s daughter after she asked for one. He also said she used a borrowed Bible during the uprising meetings. He admitted putting the girl in touch with people outside the school who could help her if her parents were angered by the conversion.
“The goal was reconciliation and not legal emancipation,” according to a response to the parents’ complaint. “The Bible and contact details were provided after BD had already declared his conversion to Christianity, and after BD had read the Bible on his cell phone provided by his parents. »
Thorsen defended discussions of religion in a public school and said he did not try to persuade BD to convert, but instead suggested he talk to other Muslims about his questions about faith.
After Chaudhry and Alvi told their story to the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper, Thorsen for follow-up the couple for defamation.
School officials argued that they confronted Thorsen about his actions after Chaudhry and Alvi complained and that he was disciplined and resigned shortly afterward and that he did not approve of his alleged actions.
Johnston agreed. He said the couple repeatedly failed to demonstrate that the district was responsible. Johnston also said no other teachers appeared to have promoted religion, making it unlikely the district would condone such conduct.
“The fact remains that when parents informed the district of their concerns about Thorsen, he was investigated, disciplined and transferred to another school – a sequence that hardly allows a reasonable inference “that the district had already known of and ratified Thorsen’s conduct,” Johnston wrote in his order, dismissing the lawsuit against the district.
The couple’s lawsuit against Thorsen remains active.
Zubair Khan, the couple’s lawyer, was disappointed by the judge’s decision.
“We do not agree with this decision and we will appeal,” he said. That appeal will have to wait, he added, until the case against Thorsen is decided.
The place of religion in public schools has long been controversial and has often resulted in lengthy legal battles. Although student-led religious groups are allowed in schools and outside groups can hold religious activities on weekends or after school, teachers and other school officials are prohibited from promoting their faith among students.
Last fall, Washington State assistant football coach Joe Kennedy returned to the sidelines after the Supreme Court ruling. governed his postgame prayers on the field were permitted by the U.S. Constitution. Kennedy, who fought a lengthy legal battle to regain his coaching position, resigned shortly after his brief return to the sidelines.
Thorsen also sued the school district, alleging that school officials discriminated against his Christian faith and claiming they misled him into believing he would be fired s he wasn’t resigning. In his lawsuit against the district, Thorsen claims that any discussion of religion took place in a “legitimate educational manner” and that he was pressured to stop because talking about Christianity made people uncomfortable.
More than 4,000 people sign a Change.org petition in support of Thorsen following his resignation.
Thorsen’s attorney declined to comment.
Johnston had previously dismissed some of Thorsen’s complaints against the school district, but an amended complaint in that case was filed in late December.
That complaint alleges that school officials limited Thorsen’s ability to talk about religion with his students. According to a letter filed as an exhibit in his lawsuit against the district, Thorsen was asked not to give preferential treatment to any particular religion in his classes and not to sponsor or participate in student religious clubs. He was also asked to stop a Bible study that was taking place in his class.
“The defendant further created a hostile environment, intolerable conditions, and unwarranted restrictions against Christianity,” Thorsen’s attorneys alleged in their recent complaint.
