Former Colorado Springs High School Student Shares Story of Fight for Religious Freedom in the Oval Office

by Bruce Hausknecht | January 17, 2020 | Religious Freedom
Chase Windebank

Chase Windebank, son of Focus on the Family’s COO Ken Windebank, was honored by an invitation from the President of the United States to come to the Oval Office on Thursday to participate in a history-making event. As part of today’s national celebration of Religious Freedom Day, the President issued a Proclamation and announced several initiatives his Administration is taking to increase protections for religious freedom in the lives of Americans.

As part of the event, Chase was able to briefly share with the President and the press his own story of fighting for the freedom to pray in school.

In 2014, Chase was a senior at Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He had been leading a small group of students during non-instructional time who wanted to pray for the needs of their school and fellow classmates, when a school official called him in and told him the group could no longer meet because of the “separation of church and state.” With the help of attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom, the high school reversed course and promised to respect the students’ right to pray.

Chase, now a youth pastor, continues his efforts among the next generation of young men and women to impart the power of prayer and the importance of the Constitution’s guarantee of the freedom to do so.

The Daily Citizen caught up with Chase after his Oval Office experience and asked him to share his story with DC readers.

Watch the video here.

One of those initiatives undertaken by the Administration today includes regulations from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) that, among other things, would update guidance to America’s elementary and secondary educational institutions  regarding the First Amendment’s guarantee of students’ right to pray.

With the actions that the President is taking, hopefully situations like the one Chase and his high school prayer group endured will become less frequent. Getting the word out to public schools that students don’t lose their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate is a valuable exercise that will benefit current and future generations of school-age believers.