Florida school, church called to resist government order to close

A Florida school-choice advocacy group is urging a school and church to ignore an order to shut down from state regulators.

The Florida Citizens Alliance (FCA) says the Lee Boulevard Baptist Church and Lehigh Acres Christian School unjustly received a cease-and-desist on Tuesday over an alleged discrepancy related to the septic system’s capacity at the church, which hosts the school. Lehigh Acres is a suburb of Fort Myers on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

The alliance claims the state’s “regulations surrounding the matter are ambiguous, and the church and school have made every possible effort to abide by state laws,” it said in a release. “They had even offered countless solutions to attempt to comply with regulations, including offering to have air-conditioned portable bathrooms brought in until any such discrepancies could be resolved,” but to no avail. 

Shutdown has been ordered immediately until the system can be upgraded to handle increased flow or the property is connected to municipal sewers, according to the state Department of Health’s notice. 

At issue is what the school’s top administrator describes as conflicting regulations relevant to the school’s recent move to the church. 

The head of school, Pastor Robert Roper, told FCA he waited until 15 days after the move to have the state inspect the property, following state Department of Education code. But the health department claims it should have been inspected before moving in, an apparent conflict of regulations between departments. 

Roper said the school is ready to upgrade the septic system at a cost of $80,000 but wasn’t given enough time to meet the health department’s original shutdown date of Nov. 30.

The education department had also made Nov. 30 its shutdown date after an extension, but then this week, the health department issued the immediate cease-and-desist order. 

“In good faith, we made every effort to comply with state laws as we understood them, and now we feel that we have been unreasonably attacked by the Department of Health,” Roper said. “Not only is the inspection process from the Department of Health contradictory to that of the Department of Education, but we haven’t been able to get anyone from the state to even address our plight. Now we are being unjustly ordered to shut down, and our students will be displaced.” 

Rick Stevens, co-founder and director of FCA, urged Roper not to shut down, citing religious freedom. 

“We believe the church and school must refuse to comply with this unlawful order from the government,” said Stevens, who is also a pastor. “As believers in Christ, we have a mandate from Jesus to go and make disciples, and one of the ways we do that is through education. The state’s unlawful actions to shut down a key element of exercising our religion is a direct violation of the First Amendment.” 

The K-12 school is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Alva, where it originated with three students in 2018. Enrollment has since grown to 138 students, forcing it to move into a larger church. The growth is due in part to Florida’s school choice programs. Most students are using one of the Sunshine State’s scholarships to attend the private school, according to FCA’s release. 

Stevens called it “a model Christian school (and) a model for how school choice programs here in Florida benefit students. … 

“We cannot let this aggression stand, and Lehigh Acres Christian School has our full and total support in this fight.” 

The state’s order did not specify what penalties, if any, would be imposed for non-compliance.