Roark v. South Iron R-1 Sch. Dist., No. 06-392 (E.D. Mo. Jan. 8, 2008)
A federal district court in Missouri has ruled that a school district’s longstanding practice of permitting the distribution of Bibles to elementary school students by the Gideons International on school grounds during the school day, as well as its new policy continuing the past practice with minor alterations, both violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The school board of South Iron R-1 School District ignored the warnings of its superintendent, attorney, and insurance carrier and voted to allow the practice to continue, until a lawsuit was filed and the board adopted the new policy. The district court issued a preliminary injunction against the practice based on the old policy, rejecting the board’s argument that its new policy mooted the issue. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed, remanding the case to the lower court for trial on the merits.
On remand, the district court concluded that the past practice violated the Establishment Clause under the test enunciated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971). First, the court found, the school district had failed to present any evidence that even suggested a secular purpose for the practice, which ran afoul of Lemon’s “primary effect” prong by advancing religion and its “excessive entanglement” prong because of distribution’s location, time, and circumstances. Turning to the new policy, the court concluded the board’s behavior “raised a very strong inference that the purpose of this new policy is to promote Christianity by providing a means for Christian Bibles to be distributed to elementary school students.” The shift of the point of distribution from classrooms to the front of the administrative offices or the cafeteria was a minor alteration, the court found, because Bibles were still distributed during school hours on school property to elementary school students. Although consideration of Lemon’s primary effect and entanglement prongs was unnecessary because the policy lacked a secular purpose, the court noted that policy also failed under those prongs.
The court rejected the district’s argument, based on case law protecting the distribution of flyers promoting religious activities, that prohibiting distribution of the Bibles would constitute impermissible viewpoint discrimination under the Free Speech Clause. The distinction, the court found, is that flyers are merely an invitation to religious activities, while the Bible is a religious document involved in religious observance and worship.
Roark v. South Iron R-1 Sch. Dist., No. 06-392 (E.D. Mo. Jan. 8, 2008)
[Editor’s Note: A summary of the Eighth Circuit opinion, with a link to the previous district court decision, is below.]
NSBA School Law pages on Doe v. South Iron R-1 Sch. Dist.