For two years, a youth ministry called Leelanau Lighthouse ran inside Leland Public School during students' lunch hour, led by two young missionaries who are relatives of a wealthy local property owner. Parents grew alarmed that their kids were being approached and drawn into off-campus religious gatherings without their knowledge or consent. Last September, 78 households across Leland and Leelanau County formally objected, sending letters declining consent for the ministry to contact their children. The school listened and asked the missionaries to stop volunteering on campus.

That should have settled it. Instead, when Apollos Properties — the real estate company owned by the ministry's own benefactor — tried to open a permanent ministry location in a building overlooking Leland's historic Fishtown harbor, the township's Planning Commission denied the permit because it didn't meet local zoning rules for that business district. Rather than accept that decision, the property owner and the ministry have now filed a federal lawsuit against Leland Township, and the case is still pending before the township's Zoning Board of Appeals.

This isn't about anyone's right to worship. It's about whether families get a say when an outside group tries to recruit their kids through a public school, and whether a small town's zoning rules can stand without being challenged in federal court by a well-funded plaintiff. Leland's Zoning Board of Appeals should uphold the Planning Commission's decision, and the Leland Public School Board of Education should keep firm policies requiring parental consent before any outside group — religious or otherwise — can contact students during school hours.

Families in Leelanau County deserve to control who reaches their kids. Sign the petition to urge Leland Township and the Leland Public School Board to protect students from unvetted recruitment — before the ministry gets another way in.