N.Y. school district to appeal church-state ruling on curriculum

The Associated Press

09.16.99

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A Westchester school district is appealing a federal judge's ruling that it violated the separation of church and state by using an altar at its Earth Day observance and by having third-graders make cutouts of an elephant-headed god.

"The real issues are academic freedom and the independence and integrity of our public schools," said Paul Alcorn, president of the Bedford Central School District Board of Education.

The district, which has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the case, announced yesterday that it had voted unanimously to authorize its lawyers to appeal. It had previously filed a notice of claim to keep that option open.

The board said Judge Charles Brieant "misapplied and blurred constitutional standards." Attorney Warren Richmond said the ruling went beyond any other federal court in considering the "particular sensitivities of individual students and ... the actions of individual teachers."

The lawsuit was filed by three Catholic families alleging that the school district promoted satanism, the occult and New Age religion. Brieant ordered the district not to have students make "a graven image of a god or religious symbol"; to keep "worry dolls" out of the school system; and to end Earth Day celebrations that involve "worship of the Earth." He also awarded $107,000 in court costs to the plaintiffs, which is also being appealed.

The judge found no constitutional violations in a host of other activities the families objected to, ranging from yoga classes to cemetery visits to drug counseling.

James Bendell, the American Catholic Lawyers Association attorney who argued the case, welcomed the appeal, saying he would cross-appeal in hopes of winning on even more issues.