Bible in the Schools Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Mercer County 'Bible in The Schools' Program on Hold

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.

West Virginia School District's Motion to Dismiss Challenged

A group suing Mercer County schools over its “Bible in the Schools” programs has filed a response to the school system’s motion to dismiss.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports the Freedom from Religion Foundation Inc. filed their response in the U.S. District Court in Bluefield.

A Wisconsin-based group filed the original suit in January on behalf of two parents of children who either attend or will attend Mercer County schools. The lawsuit alleges the Bible in Schools programs improperly entangles public schools into religious affairs.

Lawyers representing Mercer County schools filed the dismissal last month on multiple grounds including that the original suit doesn’t attack the curriculum of Bible classes; instead, it allegedly attacks that the program exists.

A hearing on the motion has been set for June 19.

W.Va. School District Wants Bible Program Suit Nixed

A West Virginia school district wants a federal lawsuit over its “Bible in the Schools” program dismissed.

The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports that Mercer County schools filed the motion in Bluefield federal court.

In January, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc. sued the Mercer County Board of Education, Mercer County Schools and Superintendent Deborah Akers.

The Wisconsin-based group is representing an unnamed parent of a Mercer County kindergarten student.

The lawsuit says the parent is an atheist and wants to raise her child without religion, but the child risks ostracism if she doesn’t take the optional Bible classes.

The county school board administers the privately funded program.

The board’s motion calls the lawsuit an attack on the constitutional right to offer optional Bible classes in public schools.

Lawyers Want to Dismiss mother's Lawsuit over Bible Classes

Lawyers for a West Virginia public school system are asking a judge to maintain a 75-year practice of putting children in Bible classes.

WVVA-TV reports attorneys for the Mercer County Board of Education and Mercer County Schools filed a motion with the judge this week to dismiss a mother’s lawsuit over the board’s “Bible in the Schools” program.

Backed by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the unidentified mother had argued in the January lawsuit that her kindergarten child will be forced either to take weekly Bible classes in elementary school or be ostracized as one of the few children who don’t.

The defendants’ attorneys say the plaintiff doesn’t have standing to sue because the harms are hypothetical, as the classes don’t begin until the first grade.