ACLU Beats Back Gideons in Wilson County Schools
Jeff Woods has the wrap-up of Wilson County Schools’ latest defeat (see the bottom of the post for their 2008 loss):
In the latest, the ACLU threatened to sue and Wilson County succumbed, agreeing to stop allowing the distribution of Bibles to students during school hours.
Here’s how it worked in Wilson County. In an annual scene not too much unlike something out of Afghanistan, fifth-graders were herded into a gym where a teacher spoke in glowing terms about the first time she was given a Bible. She then called up each row of children to retrieve a Bible from a basket full of them.
From the official ACLU press release:
After the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee threatened to file a lawsuit, Wilson County school officials have agreed to end the annual practice of allowing the unconstitutional distribution of Bibles to students at a Lebanon elementary school and all other Wilson County schools.
The agreement prohibits all Wilson County Schools employees from “promoting, endorsing and acquiescing in the distribution of Bibles to students of the Wilson County Schools on school grounds during school hours.” Wilson County school officials had previously allowed representatives from The Gideons International to distribute Bibles containing the books of the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs to fifth-grade students during school hours at Carroll-Oakland Elementary School.
In the settlement agreement, Wilson County Schools agree to
permanently restrain from any activity and to immediately and forever cease promoting, endorsing, and acquiescing in the distribution of Bibles to students of the Wilson County Schools on school grounds during school hours . . . [and] pay reasonable attorneys fees to counsel for PLAINTIFFS . . . not to exceed Five Thousand and 00/100 ($5,000) Dollars . . . .
For future reference, here’s the letter that the ACLU sent Wilson County Schools last October threatening to sue. This should put the fear into Cheatham County Schools, at least in part, because of the accusation that the Gideons also handed out Bibles there:
Beginning at least as early as 2001, there has been a pattern and practice of the endorsement of religion by the Cheatham County Public Schools in that, year after year, the District has allowed members of Gideons International into the classrooms to proselytize and distribute Bibles to public school students. (¶ 43)
Remember, the accusations in Doe v. Cheatham County are also pretty egregious. I’d be surprised if that one didn’t settle as well.
Edit, 1:25pm: This is, of course, the second major school/religion defeat for Wilson County Schools in recent years at the hands of the ACLU. Check out the complaint, exhibits, and judicial opinion in that case.
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