Bishop McCort seeks to amend LHAC complaint

Catholic school alleges religious discrimination

Bishop McCort Catholic Academy of Johnstown has asked permission of a federal judge to file an amended complaint in its ongoing religious discrimination lawsuit against the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference, several school districts within the LHAC and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Conference.

The lawsuit was initially filed in January, but a majority of the school districts that comprise the LHAC in September agreed to an out-of-court settlement that on its face guaranteed that McCort and two other religious-based schools, Bishop Guilfoyle Academy of Altoona and Bishop Carroll Catholic High School of Ebensburg, would remain members of the LHAC at least through 2031.

But, as indicated in its request to U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand of Pittsburgh, the issues involving religious discrimination have not been totally resolved.

McCort last Friday sought permission from the judge to file an amended complaint naming six school districts and the PIAA as defendants.

The remaining school districts are Greater Johns­town, Bedford Area, Forest Hills, Penn Cambria, Somerset and Westmont Hilltop.

The PIAA also is still part of the lawsuit.

On Monday, Wiegand ordered the remaining defendants to respond to McCort's proposed new 46-page lawsuit.

The proposed amended complaint comes after the remaining districts and the PIAA have filed petitions seeking dismissal of the McCort lawsuit.

The proposed lawsuit charges that the LHAC public school members late last year and early this year conspired to remove the religious-based schools from the athletic conference.

It charges that the PIAA, the body that oversees high school sports throughout the state, refused to intervene on McCort's behalf, even though the proposal was widely known and discussed by PIAA authorities, according to the proposed lawsuit.

"The PIAA's and the Defendant Public Schools' bias and discrimination against religious schools, and Bishop McCort specifically, not only violates the United States Constitution, but also run afoul of the PIAA's and the LHAC's own stances on discrimination and sportsmanship and runs contrary to Pennsylvania's policy for school choice (as implied by the Pennsylvania School Code) which serves 'to preserve the primary right and obligation of the parent of parents, to choose the education and training for such child,'" the proposed McCort lawsuit states.

The proposed lawsuit goes into greater detail than the present lawsuit in outlining the responsibilities and powers that the PIAA has available to enforce its constitution through its district committees.

In its answer to the present lawsuit, the PIAA maintained its enforcement powers concerning decisions by local school districts was limited.

The proposed lawsuit by McCort disagrees with that stance and charges that the PIAA "is clearly acting on behalf of and for the benefit of secular institutions while withholding action when an entity, such as Bishop McCort, is religious.

"Even if the PIAA's inaction, as well as the Public Schools' direct actions, were unintentional and neutral on their face, there is a disproportionate impact on religious schools and Bishop McCort in particular," according to the proposed lawsuit.

The constitutional questions posed by McCort lawsuit include charges of: "Religious Expression Discrimination; a Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection violation, and a Civil Conspiracy to Violate Constitutional Rights."

Wiegand wanted a response to the McCort request by the end of this week.