• An injunction has been filed against two high schools in the School District of Elmbrook for holding graduation at a local church.
• The Americans United for Separation of Church and State argues that holding a public school graduation ceremony in a church violates the First Amendment.
• The church has been used for its facilities and not because of the church's beliefs.
• The church has been used for the graduation ceremonies of Elmbrook Central and Elmbrook East high schools since 2000.

A lawsuit has been filed against the School District of Elmbrook for holding two of its high schools' graduation ceremonies at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed the suit on behalf of nine students, parents and alumni, said Alex Luchenitser, senior litigation counsel for AUSCS, a nonprofit educational organization committed to protecting the separation of church and state.

The organization is asking for an injunction prohibiting the schools from holding graduation at the church this year and in future years, Luchenitser said. It is also looking for a legal declaration that past graduations were unconstitutional and for nominal damages for plaintiffs that were hurt in previous years because of this, he said.

In a year, the graduation services will be moved back to campus after renovations have been completed, Elmbrook Superintendent Matt Gibson said.

Graduation services have been held at Elmbrook Church for Brookfield Central High School since 2000 and for Brookfield East High School since 2002, Luchenitser said.

Both schools have studied the issue and determined this venue was the best and most cost effective, said Mark Kapocius, staff counsel for Elmbrook School District.

Each year, a group of students from each school works with their principal to find the best location for graduation, Gibson said.

Elmbrook Church was picked to host the ceremonies because it can accommodate large crowds, it is air-conditioned and handicap accessible, and it has ample parking and a high-quality audio-visual system, Kapocius said.

"It's an exceptionally comfortable environment," he said.

The 3,200 seat auditorium allows students to invite more guests than they could in a constricting gymnasium, said Mel Lorenz, senior pastor at Elmbrook Church.

The graduations are held in the sanctuary of the church, which has a very large cross behind the stage that you cannot avoid looking at, Luchenitser said. They are graduating in a religious situation, he said, with Bibles in the pews where attendees sit and religious symbols throughout the building.

Graduating seniors and their families are essentially being forced to go to church in order to attend their own graduation, Luchenitser said.

He said the church treats many of the attendees as second-class citizens, saying they are going to hell because their beliefs differ from the church's.

The church's beliefs are a moot point, Lorenz said. For the groups renting the building, it's just a building, he said, and it has nothing to do with the beliefs of the church.

There has been no federal court case saying graduations cannot be held in churches, Kapocius said. It has national implications that could go beyond allowing graduations at churches, he said.

"It's an interesting battle and there are a lot of people interested in the outcome," Kapocius said.

Kapocius said he expects a decision about the injunction will be made during May. The school board has not contemplated other venues if the injunction goes through, he said.

If the court decides that stopping graduations at the church is not a good remedy, the second best solution is to cover up all of the religious symbols, Luchenitser said. This would not be an ideal solution because if a school makes a church cover up religious symbols, it is like government officials interfering in the church's religious practices, he said.

Elmbrook Church has never intentionally covered any of its symbols and does not plan to, Lorenz said.

"We feel it would be a contradiction of the church's identity to cover a part of its basic architecture," he said.

He said it is impractical to disguise a church as a secular building.