A Christian student is threatening legal action after her school wouldn’t allow her to decorate her paid parking spot with Bible verses. Sabrina Steffans, a senior at Grand Island High School near Buffalo, New York had her own paid parking spot at the school According to Steffans, students at the school are allowed to decorate their paid spots. However, when Steffens attempted to decorate her spot with Bible verses, she was met with resistance.

“I put in three drawings that I did, and the first drawing was a drawing of this mountain called Salvation Mountain. And when I handed it in, they said … completely no to it because it had crosses, a Bible verse, and just a lot of religion that they said that wasn’t allowed,” Steffans told CBN. A second design was also denied, with the design containing a Bible verse. Her third design, which was clear of any crosses and Bible verses, was finally approved. According to Steffans, the school considered the wording “government speech,” meaning her Bible verses could prohibit the establishment clause.

It is not the first time Steffans has experienced pushback from the school over religious depictions. Steffans also runs her school’s Bible club and says she has had issues with the school not wanting to advertise the club. She has now enlisted the help of First Liberty. First Liberty insists the school’s denials violate Steffans’s First Amendment rights. “Sabrina is the only one who can’t choose for herself the message that she wants on that parking space. And that’s just viewpoint discrimination,” said First Liberty attorney Keisha Russell. “The Supreme Court has said repeatedly that religious speech is doubly protected by the Constitution under the Free Speech Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.”

First Liberty sent a letter to the Superintendent, accusing the school of “unconstitutional censorship.” “The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment requires public school officials to be neutral in their treatment of religion, showing neither favoritism toward nor hostility against religious adherents… Accordingly, the First Amendment forbids religious activity that is sponsored by the government but protects religious activity that is initiated by individuals acting on their own behalf,” wrote First Liberty. “The Court has explained that ‘there is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect.’”

Superintendent Brian Graham spoke with The Christian Post about the demand letter. “The Grand Island Central District received an 11-page letter on Tuesday from a Utah attorney working with a national religious liberty organization. We obviously need time to review, digest, and discuss it,” he said. “While we do so, we’re happy to pause the deadline for students to complete their parking space designs. We hope to have an update once our process is complete.”