A federal judge ruled Friday that the Hermon School Committee discriminated against an evangelical church when it rejected an application to rent high school space on a yearly basis.
But in the 37-page decision, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker didn’t overturn the School Committee’s 4-1 vote to instead offer a month-to-month lease rather than a 12-month or six-month option. He granted Pines Church and its pastor, Matt Gioia, $1 in damages, plus other fees.
In reaching his decision, Walker wrote that the church’s religious association was a “substantial factor” in the School Committee’s decision-making, saying that the proceedings were replete with “undertones and overtones” of animus toward Pines Church and Gioia.
Gioia moved from Colorado back to Maine with his wife, Jess, and six children during the COVID-19 pandemic to start a church. The church quickly grew and began renting space at an Orono movie theater to accommodate around 150 congregants.
During a barbecue, Gioia met Hermon School Committee member Haily Keezer, who encouraged him to look into renting space at Hermon High School. Such arrangements aren’t unusual in Maine. In 2011, The Rock Church rented Peakes Auditorium at Bangor High School for Easter services. And other churches over the years have used school space to accommodate an influx of congregants during parts of the year.
Gioia found an ally in Superintendent Micah Grant, a self-described born-again Christian. Throughout the process leading up to the December 2022 vote, Walker wrote, Grant acted as a “guardrail” for the School Committee whenever its members risked crashing into a “constitutional bridge abutment.”
Grant supported Gioia’s vision for a year-long lease and repeatedly stressed to committee members a preference for that option and that allowing Pines Church to rent the auditorium and two classrooms wouldn’t amount to an endorsement of the church.
“I am convinced that, if anything, Grant’s conduct as to procedure supported and favored treating the Church equally to all other potential public users of public space, a point he repeatedly made to the Committee in an effort to get them focused and in league with the Constitution and the advice given to them by their own lawyer,” the judge wrote.
While he didn’t accept claims that the rejection of a year-long lease amounted to a policy of discrimination, Walker found at least three School Committee members — Stephanie Oiler, Christopher McLaughlin and Karen Shorey — exhibited “bad motives” throughout the process leading up to the final vote.
In particular, Walker faulted McLaughlin, the only committee member to vote against leasing space to Pines Church, for his “intrusive” questions into the church’s denomination and views on diversity, equity and inclusion; abortion; and sexuality and sexual identity.
Oiler raised a number of practical issues over the church’s use of school property. Walker wrote that Grant “definitely dispelled” concerns over cleaning, parking, snow removal and more. The judge found that, despite couching her concerns in practical considerations, Oiler’s attitude toward Pines Church was “anything but neutral.”
“This was made only more obvious by protesting far too much that this was not about the Church but instead fear, for example, of mass vomiting epidemics and the platoon of janitorial assistance that would be required to mop it up,” Walker wrote.
While Walker acknowledged that the arrangement Pines Church sought with the Hermon school system was novel — no other group renting its school space does so on an annual basis — he wrote that “novelty is not a basis to discriminate against religious organizations” and chastised the School Committee for its failure to follow the “sound legal advice” of its lawyers.
The committee’s actions violated Pines Church’s rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Maine Human Rights Act.