Woman sues over Bible class offering

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Mooresville, Ind., woman is suing her son's public school, alleging that its practice of allowing some students to attend Bible classes once a week on school grounds while others stay behind without instructional time is unconstitutional.\nThe woman, identified only as M.W. in the lawsuit against the Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation, is the mother of an 8-year-old student at Neil Armstrong Elementary School.\nThe Morgan County school just southwest of Indianapolis allows third- and fourth-grade students to leave school for one hour a week to attend Bible classes in a trailer on school property, the lawsuit states.\nStudents who do not take part stay in school, but do not have instructional time, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 11 in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.\nSteve Harris, an attorney for the Mooresville Consolidated School Corporation, said Tuesday that it is the district's policy not to comment on pending litigation.\nAlthough teachers at Neil Armstrong Elementary do not teach the class, they are involved because they collect parental permission slips to attend the program, said Jackie Suess, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Indiana, which is representing the mother.\nThe mother also said a teacher asked her son on the first day of school why he was not attending the classes, the lawsuit states.\n"Her little 8-year-old child came home crying more than once because he felt sort of singled out for not participating," Suess said.\nFor the program to be constitutional, Suess said, the school should not be involved in any way. Teachers should not hand out enrollment forms for the program, and the classes should not be held on school property, she said.\n"We're not attacking religious education release programs," Suess said. "They can be constitutional if they're done correctly."\nThe Bible class is run by a private group called the Morgan County Schools of Weekday Religious Education. In a letter explaining the program to parents, the group said the classes are nondenominational and focus on the Bible. An offering is collected each week to help pay for classroom expenses.\n"Three aims are stressed weekly: daily Bible reading, daily prayer and encouragement to attend church school and worship in the church of your choice," the letter states. "A selection of Bible readings and a scripture applicable to the lesson are sent home with the child each week. Pupils are encouraged to memorize the \nscripture"