Katie Ayers’s Story

“Come and you will see.” These are the words of Jesus in John 1:39. It’s a simple invitation that Jesus gives to those who would become his first disciples.

An invitation like this is one of the most hospitable ways to share one’s faith. There’s no pressure, and it leaves the decision completely up to the person you’re speaking with.

Katie’s parents’ lives were changed forever after they received such an invitation. They had been caught up in a life of partying, drinking, and drugs. Then, they conversed with a neighbor who constantly seemed happy and heard about his faith in Jesus. He invited them to church.

Shortly after, Katie’s parents became Christians, and Katie saw the transformation in their lives. Together, they became “a family who is passionate about telling others about Jesus.”

When she was ten, Katie wanted to live out that passion and invite her fellow fifth-graders to her church’s Christmas party, but Pocono Mountain School District took issue with this.

Meet Katie Ayers

Katie’s parents have seen Katie’s faith develop into a personal love for Christ and others, something that she cannot keep quiet about.

“She witnesses to all of her friends,” her dad, Mike, says. “She loves God, loves Jesus with all her heart, and she is outspoken about it. She is not ashamed of it.”

“We call her our good, abnormal kid. She loves being her own person and doing her own thing, and she is definitely a leader in her own way,” Mike describes. Katie is also “very well-grounded in her faith, and has been, even from a very young age—since she was 4 or 5 years old.” Even that early, Mike says, “you could really see God working through her.”

“She has such a soft soul. She wants to save the world,” her mom, Angela, says.

“Kids get excited about birthdays, sports, or the latest trends, and they can freely share that at school. But my faith in Jesus has always been what excites me, and no one should be told that their faith isn’t welcome at school,” Katie explains.

An invitation to a Christmas party

Katie was excited about inviting students in her grade to a Christmas party. The party was going to include “ping pong, games, drinks, snacks—all kinds of stuff—and a message about God,” Katie remembers. “I just wanted to bring my friends so they could have fun and so they could learn about God and come to know Him.”

When she began to hand out her invitations, however, her teacher stopped her and told her she had to get permission from the principal first. Confused, but not wanting to cause trouble, Katie obliged. After some back and forth between Katie’s parents, the principal, and the district superintendent, Katie’s request to hand out her invitations was denied as a violation of school district policies.

While her school allowed students to pass out invitations for Halloween parties, birthday parties, and Valentine’s Day dances without getting permission, Katie was censored from handing out invitations to her church’s Christmas party because of its religious content. Even Katie’s younger sister, who attended the same school, was allowed to hand out invitations to her birthday party to her friends and classmates. It was because Katie’s invitations were religious that her school would not let her hand them out.

“It was the first time I had been told I couldn’t share my faith,” Katie recalled. “But that’s something I could never be quiet about.”

So Katie and her parents sought the help of Alliance Defending Freedom.

Students can express their religious beliefs at school

In March 2011, ADF filed a complaint on Katie and her father’s behalf against Pocono Mountain School District for violating her First Amendment rights. The school could not treat her speech or expression worse than that of other students simply because it was religious. That kind of censorship is unconstitutional.

Students have a right to express their faith in the classroom, and religious students should not be treated as second-class.

Praise God, a district court found that the policies cited by the Pocono Mountain School District in silencing her speech were unconstitutional. The school district appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, which upheld the lower court’s ruling “and laid out some fairly important principles,” David Cortman, one of Katie’s attorneys at ADF, said.

The 3rd Circuit articulated that elementary students do have free speech rights and that district officials had no justification for silencing Katie’s speech.

U.S. Courts of Appeal are the second-highest court in the country—and this was only the second Court of Appeals ruling to affirm First Amendment protections of the religious speech of elementary students.

Later in 2013, ADF used this ruling and sent letters to hundreds of school districts across the state of Pennsylvania, explaining that their speech policies fell short of the 3rd Circuit’s ruling. Katie’s victory eventually impacted over 500 school districts across the state, protecting the rights of nearly 2 million students to share their faith at school.

A win for all students leads to eternal impact

Soon after the legal win, Katie’s church held another event. This time, she handed out flyers to everyone. Some of her classmates came, too, including a girl Katie had been inviting for a long time.

At the church event, the girl accepted Christ as her Savior. Soon after, her family started coming to church with her. Now, some of them are Christians, too.

This is what it looks like to keep the doors open for the Gospel and see people walk through them. Katie’s invitation to “come and see” led to others becoming disciples of Christ, just like Jesus with the first disciples and just like the neighbor with Katie’s parents.

“It was just a whole new experience, and I learned from it,” Katie reflects. “It was scary, sometimes, not knowing what was going to happen, so I just prayed … and God was always there. He just gave me peace and helped me all the way through.”

Katie trusted God when the expression of her faith was challenged, and He was faithful in providing astonishing results through this hardship, not just for her but for many others.

Students like Katie have the right to hand out flyers at school, including ones with religious subject matter, and ADF continues to defend the right to live and speak the truth. Will you stand for free speech and religious freedom for people like Katie with a gift today?