Huntington, IN (AP) - School officials in a northeastern Indiana district deny that a religious education program offered during the school day illegally advances religion, as a federal lawsuit claims.
A complaint filed last month by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of an unnamed woman and her 8-year-old son asks a federal judge to shut down the program and bar the school district from providing it with utilities or any other support.
The boy, identified only as "J.S.," attends Horace Mann Elementary School, which offers third- and fourth-grade students a "release time" program for "By the Book Weekday Religious Instruction" through the Associated Churches of Huntington, the suit states.
The Huntington County Community School Corp. argued in its Dec. 22 response to the lawsuit that the release time program neither advances nor inhibits religion.
"The Defendant's release time program does not foster an excessive entanglement with religion," the response stated.
Similar programs at elementary schools have been protected by a 1952 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed students to receive religious education during school hours but not on school property.
Huntington's program is voluntary. Classes meet once a week in mobile trailers near school buildings, and children who don't participate remain in their classrooms with school staff, according to a brochure for the program filed with the lawsuit.
On Sept. 11, one week before the program began, J.S. was taken from his classroom to one of the temporary classrooms and given a pamphlet requesting parental consent. His mother, identified only as "H.S.," did not give consent.
The church trailer sits in the school's parking lot and uses its electricity, the suit states. The school district denies that allegation without elaboration.
The students are escorted to the program by their teachers each week, and those who do not participate receive no school programming during the release time, the suit alleges. The school district denies that students who do not participate in the program receive no instruction.
The suit alleges the school district violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by allowing religious instruction to occur on school property during instructional time, by allowing the use of school utilities by a religious organization conducting religious instruction, and by supervising and promoting the "By the Book" program.
In their response to the lawsuit, attorneys for the school district deny it violated any federal or state laws or deprived the plaintiffs of any rights "either Constitutional or otherwise."
The district acknowledges offering the program to third- and fourth-grade students with their parents' consent for one hour of religious education each week, but argues that it lacked the required intent or state of mind to commit any of the alleged violations of federal laws.
The district also says it has a legitimate, secular purpose for all decisions made respecting the release-time program, according to court documents.
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Information from: The Journal Gazette, http://www.journalgazette.net
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)