Officials in the Santa Rosa County, Fla., School District have agreed to gut an ACLU-inspired consent decree they imposed on students and faculty several years ago and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to settle a legal challenge to their decision that banned ordinary phrases such as "God bless" from their campuses.
Officials in the Santa Rosa County, Fla., School District have agreed to gut an ACLU-inspired consent decree they imposed on students and faculty several years ago and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to settle a legal challenge to their decision that banned ordinary phrases such as "God bless" from their campuses. Word of the settlement was announced yesterday by the nonprofit Liberty Counsel, which represented faculty and students in the district after the ACLU decree was adopted several years ago. The restrictions were so draconian that employee Michelle Winkler in 2009 was charged with contempt after her husband, who is not employed by the district, offered a meal prayer at a private event in a neighboring county. During testimony in the case, she also described how she and a co-worker, who recently had lost a child, had to hide in a closet to pray. Further, former Pace High School Principal Frank Lay, now retired, and Athletic Director Robert Freeman were tried for contempt after the ACLU demanded that they be punished. Freeman had been accused of offering a blessing for a lunch for some 20 adult booster club members. While the battle over their own rights were raging in court, members of the 2009 graduating class at Pace expressed their objections to the ACLU restrictions on statements of religious faith by rising up en masse at their ceremony and reciting the Lord's Prayer. The consent decree that led to criminal indictments against school employees for prayer and banned 'God Bless' will now be gutted and revised, according to the announcement from Liberty Counsel. "The amended consent decree will restore dozens of constitutional religious freedoms that were previously denied. In addition, Liberty Counsel and Christian Educators Association International will be awarded $265,000 in attorneys' fees and costs from an insurance provider, not the taxpayers, to compensate them for the litigation caused by the ACLU and the district," Liberty Counsel reported. "We are pleased that freedom has been restored to Santa Rose County," said Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University School of Law. "It is appropriate to celebrate these restored freedoms as America celebrates Independence Day. From the beginning we contended that this consent decree went too far and swallowed up the rights of teachers, staff, students and members of the community. The Constitution is not some relic that can be discarded at will." Staver told WND that the school's policy prompted the Florida legislature to adopt a law that will prevent school districts from adopting any agreements that infringe on the rights of their students or employees without written permission from those parties. |
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