County officials in West Virginia have suspended the “Bible in the Schools” program for a year to provide time for its review.
Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports Mercer County board of education members approved the suspension Tuesday night. Schools superintendent Deborah Akers says she’d like to include community members and religious leaders in the review.
The optional program for elementary and middle school students is the subject of a lawsuit claiming it improperly entangles public schools into religious affairs. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit in January, asking that the program ends.
A federal district court hearing is set for June 19 after lawyers representing Mercer County schools filed a motion in April to dismiss the lawsuit.