Paula
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5/18/2005, 1:14 p.m. CT
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Teachers and administrators in Tangipahoa Parish continue to violate a court-imposed school prayer ban, according to the ACLU, which Wednesday asked a federal judge to send them to jail.
For the fourth time in less than two months, the ACLU has formally notified the judge that school officials are flouting the prayer ban, imposed to settle a lawsuit the civil liberties group filed for a parent in 2003.
This time, the group says, an elementary school teacher in Tangipahoa Parish repeatedly held prayers in her fourth grade class, encouraged students to bring their Bibles to school, held Bible study classes in the cafeteria of D.C. Reeves Elementary School, and admonished students who didn't show up for the class.
In addition, the ACLU cites a prayer it says was recently given at Amite High School, over a loudspeaker, at an awards banquet. The prayer ended with the words "In Jesus' name we pray," violating the ban; the principal of the school sat silently by.
Wednesday's filing is the latest skirmish in a decade-long battle between the ACLU here and school authorities in the rural parish north of Lake Pontchartrain over the place of religion in the classroom. The group contends parish school officials systematically flout the Constitution's Establishment Clause forbidding the mixing of government and religion.
Court decisions have repeatedly favored the civil liberties group, including the two latest ones — a 2004 prayer ban in the schools and a February decision by U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan banning prayer before school board meetings. The school board Tuesday night pressed on with its appeal of that decision, announcing the addition of a national Christian-oriented legal group to its team, the Alliance Defense Fund.
At the same time it warned school employees against flouting the court prayer ban. That warning preceded by hours, however, the ACLU's latest contention that some in Tangipahoa continue to ignore the court's orders.
"The consent judgment is repeatedly violated by these individuals because they do not believe anything will happen to them," the ACLU said in its Wednesday court filing. "Their refusal to comply with the consent decree should and must result in their removal from society."
Under the agreement, no "invocations by students to the student body over the school's public address system, during assemblies or at any school sponsored event" are allowed.
A lawyer for the school board said the latest allegations would be "thoroughly investigated" and "disciplinary actions" would be taken if they hold up. "It's a personnel matter," said A. Kirk Gasperecz. "It's an employee not doing what they are supposed to be doing."
The ACLU, however, suggested that teachers and administrators are willfully defying the prayer ban. It compared the fourth grade teacher to George Wallace, standing in the schoolhouse door to hold off integration in the 1960s.
"I have been teaching for 12 years, and I can do what I want in my own classroom or at school," the teacher, Pam Sullivan, told a student teacher who protested about her predilection for prayer and Bible study in class, according to the ACLU. Repeatedly, she "compelled" a student to recite a prayer in class before lunch, the group said.
In addition, Sullivan expressed her disapproval of mixed-race marriages to the student teacher, who was "confronted" for challenging the frequent classroom praying, and told to "voluntarily withdraw." Once, she "entered the classroom and abruptly ordered the student to cease teaching and the ordered the students to stand and recite a prayer," according to the court filing.
Unsuccessful in the 1990s in imposing an "evolution disclaimer" in classrooms, then on lunch-time prayer sessions, the Tangipahoa board in 2004 agreed to end prayer at school sporting events.
Tuesday the board said in its statement that "anyone acting in violation of the consent judgment is doing so without the Board's authority or consent." But it again suggested students could lawfully hold "private prayers" at schools.
It promised that teachers and administrators would receive "training" so violations due to "misunderstandings" could be avoided.
A hearing on the contempt motions is set for June 1 in U.S. District Court in New Orleans.
Wednesday, the ACLU said the violations it was citing were among the most egregious yet.
"The federal court must rein in religious extremists who have taken over the Tangipahoa Parish school system by hijacking Christianity and using it to carry out their agenda of indoctrinating and proselytizing captive students under their control," said Joe Cook, the ACLU head in Louisiana.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-16/1116439237242950.xml&storylist=louisiana
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