Delaware Disgrace: Family Settles Religion-In-Schools Lawsuit After Despicable Treatment

Every once in a while I run into someone at a social function who seems puzzled about the work I do.

“Separation of church and state?” they say. “That was all taken care of years ago. It’s in the Constitution; we don’t have to worry about it any more.”

I think I’ll carry around an article that ran in today’s New York Times to hand to the next person who says that.

According to The Times, two Jewish families in Delaware have settled a lawsuit with the Indian River School District over school-sanctioned religious activities. The settlement, the newspaper reports, “mandates that within 30 days the district has to amend its religion policy to clarify what practices are constitutional. A detailed list of ‘real world examples’ are to be sent to staff members and parents, including situations like prayer before sports events and the distribution of religious materials at schools.

“The accord stipulates that school officials may not organize prayer at graduation. People will also be able to complain anonymously about violations about religious liberty or any other policies.”

The plaintiff families will also receive an undisclosed monetary award.

Whatever it is, it won’t be enough.

The Times reports that Mona Dobrich and her children faced such hostility after they objected to Christian prayers and proselytism at school that they had to leave their community in Sussex County and move to Wilmington. (The other plaintiffs were anonymous.)

The Dobriches put up with the Christian prayers at school events for many years. But the last straw came in 2004 when a minister told seniors and their families at daughter Samantha’s graduation that Jesus was the only way to the truth.

Dobrich asked the school board to respect the separation of church and state, and all heck broke loose.

Says The Times, “As news of the request spread, many local Christians saw it as an effort to limit the free exercise of religion, residents said. Anger spilled onto talk radio, in letters to the editor and at school board meetings attended by hundreds of people carrying signs praising Jesus.”

The newspaper said Mrs. Dobrich decided to leave her hometown and seek legal help after a school board meeting in August 2004 on the prayer issue.

“Hundreds showed up to protest her position,” The Times reports.

“Her son, Alex, then 11, had written a short statement that said in part: ‘I feel bad when kids in my class call me ‘Jew boy.’ I do not want to move away from the house I have lived in forever.

“After the family received threats, Mrs. Dobrich said, she and Alex moved to Wilmington. Her husband, Marco, stayed in his local job to make sure that the family had health insurance.”

The Dobriches suffered severe personal and financial problems, all because they dared to ask their local officials and their local community to respect the separation of church and state. (For more details about this incident, read a longer report at the pro-separation Web site, Jews On First!)

You might expect this kind of thing to happen in colonial America. After all, Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts Bay in 1635 for daring to challenge the Puritan government’s orthodoxy. But the Dobriches had to leave their home in America in the 21st Century!

Mrs. Dobrich is pleased with the recent settlement, although a challenge to prayer at school board meetings continues. Overall, however, she is not optimistic.

“I feel that it is a good settlement because the rules are out there,” she told The Times, referring to new policies the board has agreed to adopt. “Do I think life is going to change in Sussex County or all the other Sussex Counties in the country? No.”

That’s a sad commentary, but it’s also a call to action. I think we can safely say that defense of the principle of church-state separation is still very much needed today.

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