ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — The Giles County School Board says a private citizen placed a Ten Commandments display at a high school and no public money was used to pay for it.
Media outlets report that the board asked a federal judge this week to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks the display’s removal from Narrows High School. The lawsuit claims the display unconstitutionally promotes a specific religious faith and serves no secular purpose.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed the lawsuit Sept. 13 against the school board in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on behalf of a student and the student’s parent, identified only as Doe 1 and Doe 2.
“Since there are no allegations that the display was placed or financed by the district, the fact that Doe 1 might be offended is not related to any action taken by the district,” the board’s lawyers stated in the motion.
The county’s two high schools and three elementary/middle schools had posted the Ten Commandments for more than a decade. Last year, the Freedom From Religion Foundation objected to the displays and requested their removal. School officials replaced them with the Declaration of Independence.
After a public outcry by Christian ministers and local residents who wanted the schools to reflect their Christian beliefs, the school board unanimously voted in January to put the Ten Commandments back up — but removed them the following month after Liberty Counsel attorneys advised them about such displays in the context of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from favoring one religion over another.
In May, residents held a rally in May to demand that the commandments be returned to the schools. School board members voted 3-2 in June to rehang the biblical texts as part of displays that include U.S. historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence.
In the board’s motion, its lawyers argue that the decision was not an endorsement of a religion.
“It has nothing to do with who paid for the display or who physically hung up the display, you know, the school board approved of this and that’s what is being challenged,” said Patrick Elliot, an attorney for Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is co-counsel with the ACLU in the lawsuit.