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Mom sues to stop Bible study classes in West Virginia schools | Fox News
A kindergartner's mother is suing her public school system in West Virginia, asking that it discontinue a 75-year practice of putting kids in Bible classes that violate the U.S. and state constitutions. county School officials told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the Bible courses are voluntary, financed by a nonprofit group and that the system's 19 elementary and middle schools provide alternative courses at the same time.
If they are privately funded and alternate courses are available should they be banned??
Does the school also "put students" into courses on Wicca, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.? Somehow I think not.
(And BTW that's a really crappy article, 5 paragraphs that say almost nothing. For example, what are the "alternative courses"? Who takes them (numbers and demographics)? Who funds the bible study and why does it have to be done in the PUBLIC schools? If it's privately financed, I can't figure out why they can't find another place to have the classes? Problem solved!)
Great. Bible courses have no place in public schools. And I'm not buying the claim that they were voluntary. The kids were probably presented with whatever class time as Bible class and only offered the other class if they asked. They may not have even known another class existed. I can't believe they have been going on this long. Why didn't Christian parents from other denominations find them unacceptable? Religious classes usually have some sort of denominational slant.
The state has no proper role at all to play in religion. It is charged simply with protecting the free exercise rights of citizens from the wanton abuses of whackos and zealots.
They are using the public funded school building? Are these classes taking place during the school day, taking time away from classroom learning? Those are two issues but another issue is the peer pressure faced by the child. That is mainly what the woman is suing about. Her child will probably be mocked and shunned by the other kids for not attending the classes.
When I was in elementary school, there was Hebrew class for the Jewish kids. It was not held on public school property though. The negative aspect was that it was held during the school day and those of us who weren't Jewish were just left behind in the classroom to do busy work. The teacher couldn't teach because it would have been a waste with so many of the kids gone.
The article doesn't say much but it sounds like that religious instruction is held often. When I was in school the Jewish religious instruction was only about every two weeks and even that little bit took away from our learning time. Keep religions out of public schools. Don't they get religion in church on Sunday?
These classes take place during the school day, in classrooms, thus reducing academic subject teaching time for the students (the teachers are contracted from outside the schools, presumably). That the classes take place in the public schools lends the color of state sanction to the classes - an understandable error on the part of students, but a kind of false advertising. I would hope that clergy would be beyond this kind of chicanery. See [PDF]IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT - ffrf.org
https://ffrf.org/uploads/legal/FFRFvMercerCountySchools_Complaint.pdf
Defendant Mercer County Schools operates public schools in Mercer County, West Virginia. ... guidelines and surmised that Mercer County’s bible classes could be ...
for a copy of the filing. Quote:
"39. The bible classes are held weekly for 30 minutes in elementary
schools and for 45 minutes in middle schools as a part of the regular school day.
"(Page) 9
"40. Participation in the bible classes is said to be “voluntary” by Mercer
County Schools. The overwhelming majority of students participate in bible
classes.
"41. District policy requires reasonable alternatives for students who opt
out of the bible classes.
"42. Upon information and belief, students at many schools have not been receiving alternative instruction."
(My emphasis - more details @ the URL.)
If the Mercer Co. schools & their unnamed backers & benefactors are so exercised about having Bible studies, they should arrange for the classes to take place in churches, malls or wherever convenient. Not in the public schools, which are (I assume) paid for by property tax levies upon all the property owners in the county - whatever the status of their belief or souls.
If Bible studies are allowed, then other sectarian classes should also be allowed - or the whole house of cards falls down.
Mom sues to stop Bible study classes in West Virginia schools | Fox News
A kindergartner's mother is suing her public school system in West Virginia, asking that it discontinue a 75-year practice of putting kids in Bible classes that violate the U.S. and state constitutions. county School officials told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that the Bible courses are voluntary, financed by a nonprofit group and that the system's 19 elementary and middle schools provide alternative courses at the same time.
If they are privately funded and alternate courses are available should they be banned??
Why are they doing bible study in a public school in the first place? Isnt that what church is for?
Does the school also "put students" into courses on Wicca, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.? Somehow I think not.
Exactly. The article says the classes are voluntary, but what kindergartners would refuse, after being "put" into the class? If a non-profit is offering them, that organization can offer them off the school grounds.
It's actually a good question for the federal court system, in that a decision would further delineate whether or not such a course, offered under outside independent sponsorship, could be offered within a state institution like a school.
To the extent that the school is providing the classroom space, this could be regarded as the state sponsoring the class. This would mean that the requirement for separation of church and state is not being adhered to.
OTOH, IIRC, there's a prior federal court decision that says after-school voluntary Bible study groups are ok to sponsor on school grounds. The current case is not an after-school program, though, so a decision would have to be rendered to clarify the law.
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A bill of particulars
