Organizations say Ten Commandments’ location violates Constitution
CONNELLSVILLE — Action by the Connellsville Area School Board to delay the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from school property now puts the legal challenge ball into the court of those asking for its relocation.
School district solicitor Christopher Stern said that the board is in a virtual holding pattern until those challenging the landmark’s location take legal action.
“In the interim, we will be gathering facts and information,” said Stern. “With the monument covered, the district is not in violation of the U.S. Constitution.”
Following last week’s board action, the district maintenance department encased the entire marker with plywood and plastic strapping to ensure the covering remains intact. Prior coverings have been removed.
Jon Detwiler, board president, said that it is unfortunate that the monument, which has stood virtually unnoticed for more than five decades, has now become a point of controversy.
“(At the Sept. 12 meeting), the board unanimously approved a status-quo motion to keep the monument in its present state, upon the advice of counsel, during the pendency of board analysis,” he said. “The board wishes to make a measured and reasoned determination that is worthy of the historic worthiness of the monument.
“The board will notify the public before any further action is taken regarding the relocation of the monument.”
An online poll by HeraldStandard.com asked readers what they think the school board should do with the monument.
Of the 151 people who voted, 15 people, or 10 percent, said the school board should remove the monument; two people, or 1 percent, said the school board should keep the monument and cover it; and 134 people, or 89 percent, said the school board should keep the monument uncovered at the school.
The school district was presented the monument in June 1957 by Connellsville Aerie 493, Fraternal Order of Eagles. It was placed at the former Connellsville Joint High School, which is now Connellsville Junior High School East.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation of Wisconsin and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State of Washington, D.C., along with an unidentified local family represented by Steele Schneider, a Pittsburgh law firm, have notified the school district that the marker “conflicts with a wealth of U.S. Supreme Court precedent that protects the rights of public school students to freedom of conscience.”
In its letter to the school district, the Wisconsin foundation cites numerous cases that were heard by the highest court in regard to the posting of the Ten Commandments or any religious item in schools, with the outcome requiring the schools to remove them.
Citing a 1980 case where a school that had posted the Ten Commandments on classroom walls, the court ruled that the posting was in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
“Clearly, if a mere posting of a Ten Commandments poster is unconstitutional, a permanent monument prominently displayed in front of (Connellsville Junior High School) is unconstitutional,” states the foundation letter.
Attorney Gregory M. Lipper, senior litigation counsel for Americans United, said Thursday that the board’s action disregards the religious freedom of the district’s students and gambles with taxpayers’ money.
“The Constitution leaves decisions about religion in the hands of parents, not government employees,” he said. “We are especially disappointed that school officials appear to be caving to political pressure rather than fulfilling their responsibilities to uphold the law.”
Lipper added that the organization is “reviewing all of our options.”
Garnet Lee Crossland, a Uniontown attorney, said that the First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The “separation” concept was made explicit in Everson vs. Board of Education, a (1947) U.S. Supreme Court case dealing with a New Jersey law that allowed government funds to pay for transportation of students to both public and Catholic schools, said Crossland.
“Citing Thomas Jefferson, the court concluded that ‘the First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach,'” said Crossland.
The New Kensington-Arnold School District is awaiting a lawsuit to be filed by the same Pittsburgh law firm in the Connellsville school district matter.
In 1957, the New Kensington Eagles erected a monument etched with the Ten Commandments at Valley High School.
Earlier this year, through Steele Schneider, the Wisconsin foundation and two New Kensington-Arnold parents requested the landmark be removed.
The school district was advised again in late-August that it had until Sept. 7 to remove it from its property. The monument remains on school property.