A Pine Creek choir teacher had given permission to Windebank and his fellow worshipers to meet in an empty music practice room. No complaints ever ensued from other students or faculty. For three years, the group encountered no problems, according to ADF's complaint. But in late September, Windebank was summoned to the assistant principal's office and ordered to stop praying because of "the separation of church and state."

The school singled out the harmless activities of the young man of faith and banned members of his group from discussing current issues of the day from a religious perspective during an open period in an unobtrusive meeting place.

As Todd Starnes of Fox News, who broke the story of the lawsuit last week, lamented, "Public school administrators and their lawyers have succeeded in suppressing and oppressing the Christian voice at Pine Creek High School."

It defies common sense that in conservative-leaning Colorado Springs, home to a vibrant faith community and leading Evangelical organizations, students would be reprimanded and deprived of basic constitutional rights. As a letter from local parents to the school district decried, "To what benefit does it serve a school to limit the ability for a student to pray with their friends, fellowship with their friends, or discuss daily events from a Christian perspective? It is obvious that School District 20 is taking a freedom FROM religion perspective, not a freedom OF religion perspective."

Think about it: If the high-schoolers had gathered in the cafeteria to listen to Billboard magazine's No. 1 pop hit "Habits (Stay High)" -- "You're gone and I gotta stay high / all the time / to keep you off my mind" -- school officials would have had no issue.

If they lounged in a courtyard to joke about the latest girl-fight videos or off-color-joke memes posted on Vine, no problem. If they discussed the latest Walking Dead episode or napped in the library? All good. But singing "Amazing Grace" and studying Scripture? This subversion must be stopped!

One outraged clergyman and the parent of a 15-year old daughter, the Rev. Eric Zolner, Vicar at St. George's Anglican Church Colorado Springs, fired off a letter to Ms. Van Matre, District 20 board president challenging the school's decision and the claiming it smacked of One of the totalitarian tactics found in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union when they sought to suppress religion and free thought.

He blasted the misuse of the First Amendment clause to the US Constitution arguing that the prayer group's actions did not violate the "separation of church and state." This amendment was a reaction to what had been experienced in places like England where the church was (and still is) state controlled.

"By telling teens at Pine Creek that they are not allowed to pray or talk about Jesus at school is a direct violation of the First Amendment. By allowing the group to meet (as it has for a number of years), the school is in no way endorsing or establishing Christianity as the official religion of Pine Creek High School or District 20, just as having a Rubik's Cube club in no way establishes the Rubik's Cube as the official past time of the school."

Fr. Zolner said he feared that the District will react to the lawsuit by simply enforcing the stated policy which prohibits non-curricular activities during the seminar period. "Doing this would simply send the message to students that free thought and expression of individual beliefs will not be tolerated in District 20. It will teach them that one person's complaint is justification for suppressing the rights of the people."

Another Anglican priest, the Ven. Michael Williams, a USAF Chaplain and Veteran of 25 years, and now associate rector at St. George's Anglican Church, wrote Van Matre describing her actions as "deeply disappointing" and condemned the administration of PCHS for suppressing the students' rights to free religious speech and discriminating against Christians. "These students have been policed, singled out and targeted specifically because they are Christians. This violates all sorts of civil rights as well as basic rules of civility and common sense. If the school goes forward attempting to justify such blatant discrimination against the free speech rights of an individual because of their religious identity, the ADF will set them straight."

Williams said the idea behind the so-called separation of church and state was conceived for the purpose of protecting religious expression not to purge it from the public square by way of promoting a religion/religious expression-free zone. He reminded Matre that other groups in history have suffered similar discrimination including the oppression of the Jews during WWII, the Holocaust and the horror and tyranny of such oppression. He said Aleksander Solzhenitsyn was imprisoned in Lubyanka and then carted off to the Gulag because his speech was judged by the Soviet administrators to be offensive.

National Review reporter Michelle Malkin exploded arguing in a column that the problem is not that there's too much God in students' lives. "The problem is that there isn't nearly enough of Him." All the time we have cheating, bullying, cybersexting, hazing, molestation, suicide, drug abuse and murder going on.

"With the malfunction of moral seatbelts and the erosion of moral guardrails, too many kids have turned to a pantheon of false gods, crutches, and palliatives. They're obsessed with Slender Man and Vampire Diaries. Alex from Target's hair and Rihanna's tattoos. Overpriced basketball sneakers and underdressed reality stars. Choking games and YouTube games. Gossip and hookups. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. It's all about selfies over self-control, blurred lines over bright lines."

Malkin blasted the administration saying, "In a metastatic youth culture of soullessness and rootlessness, the idea of high-school teens voluntarily using their free time to pray and sing hymns is not just a breath of fresh air. It's salvation. But leave it to secularists run amok to punish faithful young followers of Christ.

"How did we get here? And in Colorado Springs, of all places -- not Berkeley or Boulder or Boston? Blame cowardice, ignorance, and politically correct bureaucrats pledging allegiance to one nation, under godlessness, without religious liberty, and the occult of extreme secularism for all," she roared.

A statement from Academy District 20 following the complaint filed by Chase Windebank argued that there is no Open Time Policy written or unwritten.

"The period of time referenced by the complaint is seminar time during which students report to an assigned seminar class where attendance is taken. This time is counted as academic time toward the minimum hours of instruction that schools are required to provide by state law, and therefore, must be used for academic purposes.

"On Mondays and Wednesdays students in good academic standing may leave the seminar classroom to participate in curriculum-related activities such as studying in the library or with study groups, seeking individual assistance from staff members, or meeting with curriculum-related clubs.

"Seminar is not a period of time during which students may engage in non-curriculum-related activities, religious or otherwise, or participate in non-curriculum related clubs. Non-curriculum-related groups, which include religious groups, are permitted to meet both before and after instructional time."

The group continues to meet without prayer.

VOL: This is the tip of the religious freedom iceberg. Incidents like this are becoming all too frequent around the country. This story got two Anglican priests galvanized to act. Please think about what is going on in your community. --- David Virtue