2020-2021 Issue 2
Table of Contents Pages 1-2: Immanuel's Reopening Page 3: Health Section Page 4: Sadie Hawkins Pages 5-6: Election News Pages 7-8: Fall and Student Life Pages 9-11: Entertainment
180 Hard Won School Days by Alex Hughes and Riley Chastain
Immanuel has been engaged in a legal battle for the right to educate students in person since the school opened. Amid the novel coronavirus and statewide orders that forced schools to remain closed, Immanuel believed that they had a moral obligation to take a stand. They fought for the freedom to attend school even when faced with imposing consequences, unwilling to back down from what they believed was a fundamental human right. The school retained the services of Tyler and Bursch, a southern California law firm who specializes in religious liberty issues and has represented many schools and churches. Lawyer Jennifer Bursch took on Immanuel as a client, and quickly became invested in the fight to remain open.
"As an attorney, it's been interesting to watch the governor literally create what he calls laws by just modifying a website," Bursch stated in a radio interview on KMJ. "That kind of power without a democratic process and without the legislature speaking into it, without our normal protections and our checks and balances that our system is made up of...as a lawyer, that's very difficult." After an exhausting fight, Immanuel walked away with the right to educate their students in person. Beginning August 13 with the illegal commencement of school, it stretched to October 20, when the third and final court date wrapped up. Here is a list of the steps that led up to that tremendous victory.