This new lawsuit marks the seventh time the ACLU has sued the Tangipahoa board.
There are certain things you can count on. The sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Old Faithful will erupt. And, every few years, the American Civil Liberties Union will sue the Tangipahoa Parish School Board in Louisiana.
The members of this board seem to be having difficulty grasping the concept of separation of church and state. It’s a long-running problem. For some reason, school board members don’t seem to understand that their job is to oversee the education of young people, not meddle in their religious lives.
In the 1990s, the ACLU sued the board on behalf of anonymous plaintiffs who were upset over prayer policies in the schools. Parents complained that youngsters were routinely pressured to take part in prayers at football games and other school events. In one case, a football coach instructed the players to bow their heads, touch someone nearby and recite the Lord’s Prayer.
The ACLU won that case. A few years later, the board got the bright idea to paste a disclaimer in its science books, warning the kids about evolution. The board lost that one, too.
Now the board is back in court again. This time, the issue is prayer before board meetings. In August 2007, the board adopted a policy stating that clergy from “religious congregations with an established presence in the local community” will be invited to give invocations prior to school board meetings. The board president gets to decide who makes the cut, essentially giving him veto power over the prayers.
“Yet again the Tangipahoa Parish School Board has indicated that it favors some residents over others, and would rather waste taxpayer money on litigation than follow the law,” Marjorie R. Esman, Executive Director of the ACLU Foundation of Louisiana, said in a press release. “The Constitution does not permit school boards to endorse or promote religion, because the government must remain neutral to religion. The Tangipahoa Parish School Board is well aware of this bedrock legal principle, but chooses to flout the law rather than to obey it.”
This new lawsuit marks the seventh time the ACLU has sued the Tangipahoa board. Many of the lawsuits have been filed on behalf of anonymous plaintiffs. They fear reprisal if their names were made public.
Located northwest of New Orleans across Lake Pontchartrain, Tangipahoa Parish is a thin sliver of land with a population of about 113,000. According to its Web site, the parish was created in 1869 by taking land from four surrounding parishes. Its slogan, prominently featured on the site, is, “More than a great place to live.”
Hmmmm. It can’t be that great, since the parish school board seems intent on violating citizens’ constitutional rights. If the parish wants to live up to that slogan, it has some work to do. It can start by getting its public schools out of the religion business.
© 1947 - 2009