Two families sue over religion in classroom
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By LISA RATHKE The Associated Press - Published: February 10, 2009
MONTPELIER — Two families are suing the Irasburg school district over a teacher who it claims proselytized in the classroom and retaliated against students who complained.
In a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on their behalf, the families accused Irasburg Village School teacher Wally Rogers of including religious books he bought with school funds in a reading program and creating incentives for students to read them.
They also said he posted the Ten Commandments on the wall, distributed religious materials and directed students to his Web page, which contained information on creationism. By allowing it, the school district violated their constitutional rights, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday.
"This has been a long battle for us. And we're just hoping that this brings it a close, that people get educated on what's going on," said Melvin Downs, of Irasburg, one of the plaintiffs.
People don't understand that Christianity cannot be taught in a public school, he said. "We hope to educate the public about what's happening, what's been happening for probably almost 15 years now," he said. "There's been people who have come forward and complained for years."
Principal Paul Simmons and Superintendent Stephen Urgenson didn't immediately return phone calls seeking comment Monday. Pietro Lynn, a Burlington attorney representing the supervisory union, said he could not talk about the details of the case.
"The school acted appropriately in all respects," he said. "We expect that we will prevail in this matter."
Melvin and Anne Downs and Robin and Robert Voitle, who each had daughters in Rogers' seventh grade class, said Rogers added overtly religious books he bought with school funds in a list of books students could read as part of a reading program.
But he offered more points to students for reading those books than the others, according to the families.
Rogers also distributed a statement entitled "Why Jesus is better than Santa Claus," saying Jesus "rides on the wind and walks on the water" and "became our gift and died on the tree," the lawsuit said.
After complaining to the principal, the families said Rogers retaliated by singling out the students, which encouraged other students to belittle them, the lawsuit said.
The principal did not address the problems so the family went to the school board and then the superintendent, the complaint said.
In response, the school district agreed to pay for the children to go to other schools, the lawsuit said. But last year, the families were told the school district would pay for only one year of tuition and billed the Voitles approximately $400 for the difference in costs between the Irasburg and Orleans school, the lawsuit said.
The Voitles' daughter attends Coventry Village School. Their 11-year-old son is home schooled. The Downs' two daughters attend Orleans Elementary and Brownington Central School. Both families said their younger children would have attended the Irasburg school had the teacher and administrators behaved differently.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and reimbursement for attorneys' fees.
"We'd like everyone to realize that this is a public school and it has to follow the same laws that everybody else does," Downs said.
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