NASHVILLE — Less than a year after a federal judge ruled the Wilson County school district illegally promoted religion, the school board is facing a new lawsuit for banning it.
The Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, claiming the school board censored posters for a student-led prayer event.
The Christian legal organization filed the lawsuit on behalf of four families.
The dispute involves posters for a Lakeview Elementary School student-led prayer in September. The posters included the phrases “In God We Trust” and “God Bless the U.S.A.” They also had disclaimers saying the event was not sponsored by the school, The Tennessean of Nashville reports.
School officials objected to the God references as well as an invitation to “come and pray,” the suit says, and required all religious language on the posters be covered over.
Alliance Defense Fund senior counsel Nate Kellum told The Tennessean that censorship violated students’ freedom of religion.
“Christian students shouldn’t be censored for expressing their beliefs,” Kellum said.
Mike Davis, Wilson County director of schools, declined to comment.
In 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee sued the Wilson County school board for inappropriately promoting religion when a group known as the Praying Parents met on campus and handed out notes telling students they’d been prayed for.
U.S. District Judge Robert L. Echols wrote that the school administration agreed with the Praying Parents’ purpose of promoting Christianity in the school, “became excessively entangled with the group’s religious activities and abandoned the school’s constitutional obligation to maintain strict neutrality towards religion.”
Some school officials attended Praying Parents events and had worn “I prayed” stickers around the school.
In May, Echols ordered the board to pay $171,000 for the plaintiff’s legal fees.
The four families suing the school have ties to the Praying Parents.
Or login with:
New Account