Displaying the Ten Commandments.
Written By: Janah Stokes, Staff Writer
A Southwestern Virginia public school is battling for the right to display the Ten Commandments. A student and the students’ parent came forward with complaints about the Ten Commandments being posted in a Giles County public school.
The complaint states that the presence of the Ten Commandments infringes on First Amendment rights by portraying an outlet for one religion to be practiced.
Jessica Womack, junior sociology and criminal justice major said, “if I was in a secondary school, I probably would have just looked at it and acknowledged it, but I would not have made a big deal about it. I wouldn’t be offended, but I see why someone else would be offended, especially if Christianity isn’t their religion.”
According to the Washington Times, the Ten Commandments have been displayed in all of the county’s schools for a decade, before complaints in December.
“The school shouldn’t push religion down students’ throats; if you’re going to post the Ten Commandments then you should post other religious documents as well. They’re wrong for dismissing their claim like that because everyone isn’t a Christian and shouldn’t have to experience it. They make such a big deal about not teaching how God created everything but then they make a big deal about having the Ten Commandments in school. That doesn’t make sense,” said Shane Rivera, a junior history major at ODU.
Residents who supported the displays were highly dissatisfied with the removals of the documents. About 200 students in Giles County participated in a walk out this spring to act out against the removal of the Ten Commandments.
“This is Giles County, and Christ is a big, big, big part of Giles County, for those who don’t like it, go somewhere else,” said a student in court documents.
The school board restored the religious document, and proposed for it to be displayed beside historical legal documents such as the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, the Star Spangled Banner and a picture of Lady Justice.
Those fighting for the removal claim that it “promotes a particular message to which the student does not subscribe. The display sends a message to the student that he is an outsider and not a full participant in the school community. It also places coercive pressure on student to suppress their personal beliefs and adopt the board’s favored religious views.”
Mathew D. Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel and the Dean of Liberty University’s School of Law in Lynchburg, Va, argued in court against the case. He stated that the plaintiffs “cannot allege the facts necessary to place the square peg of the Giles County documents display into the round hole of an impermissible endorsement of religion.”
The Giles School Board and Staver merely dismissed the claim because the plaintiffs failed to present adequate information for their case. The board argued that the school exhibited one religious document in the company of several legal historical documents, which helped develop and influence the law in Virginia. They contended that the intentions weren’t to teach students about religion but to pay homage to influential historical documents.
Phot By Urbanchristiannews.com
