Parent of student sues over religious group holding classes on school property

The parent of an elementary school student has sued Morgan County Schools (MCS) in Indiana federal court, alleging the school system violated the constitutional mandate of separation of church and state by allowing an outside religious group to operate classes in a trailer on school property. The parent also alleges that school officials at Neil Armstrong Elementary School monitor enrollment in the religion classes and single out students who do not attend. Although school district officials decline to comment on the suit, leaders of the religious group have offered to move the classes off-campus to short-circuit the suit. "We will not have any controversy," says Mary Parker, an adviser of Weekday Religious Education, which operates the classes. "If we had to move them, we would. I hope it doesn't come to that." Under Indiana law, based on a 1952 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, public schools can release children from school for voluntary off-campus religion classes if their parents request it. According to Jacquelyn Bowie Suess, an American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana (ACLU-IN) attorney who filed the suit, such classes are permissible provided public schools are not involved. "The problem is that it's taking place on school grounds, and that the school is so involved with it," she says. Ms. Parker says that the trailer is "on the edge" of the school grounds, and that the group pays for utilities and other costs. She also notes students must provide parental permission slips in order to attend. "We've had to turn kids away who wanted to come and their parents didn't want them to," she says. "It is not, ‘You will go to this.’ I think there is a lack of understanding of what's going on."

Religious instruction classes have been challenged in Indiana before. In 2001, a federal court ruled that Perry Township Schools could not allow a religious group's trailer on school property. Nonetheless, lawsuits are rare. "In greater likelihood, the community is at least largely homogeneous religiously, so you potentially have fewer challengers who might object to the religious instruction even if the public school arguably was doing more than simply permitting the program to take place," says Daniel Conkle, an Indiana University law professor. While he agrees that the state law clearly prohibits school officials from pressuring students to attend religion classes, he acknowledges the law lacks clarity regarding the issue of school’s tracking enrollment in such classes. Referring to the suit’s allegations that school officials coerced students to attend the religion classes, Mr. Conkle says, "I'd have to see more details about that, but some cooperation is inevitable."