Ten Commandments in school stirs fight in Va. district

The Ten Commandments are posted on lockers at Giles High School in Pearisburg, Va. A complaint led the superintendent to order the removal of the displays, but the school board voted to post them again. (Kevin Sieff)

The turning point was a raucous school board meeting attended by more than 100 Giles County residents. Hanging the commandments is "a right" and "a blessing" and "a moral obligation," residents said in the public forum. By the end of the meeting, the school board had voted unanimously to restore the Ten Commandments. And the Board of Supervisors soon after decided to support the decision, agreeing to help fund the district's legal defense.

Public displays featuring the Ten Commandments have caused legal clashes for decades. The Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that a Kentucky policy requiring the commandments on the walls of public school classrooms violated the First Amendment. But in 2005, the court upheld the inclusion of the commandments as part of a monument which included 16 other historical documents on the Texas State Capitol grounds.

Scholars say that the 1980 case, Stone v. Graham, will probably preclude the school board from legally displaying the commandments on school grounds. "The school board is making a bet that the Supreme Court will overrule that decision," said Douglas Laycock, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Virginia School of Law. "For a little school board down in the mountains, it's an expensive endeavor."

Although court decisions have underscored the line between church and state, many residents - who are quick to call Giles a "Christian county" - have expressed a desire to fight back against federal and state intrusions.

Some of the county's government buildings feature posters reading "In God We Trust" near their entrances. After the Supreme Court ruled that prayer in school was unconstitutional, the district introduced its weekly Bible Bus, which facilitates religious classes for most of the county's elementary school students. That initiative is legal, according to local officials, because it's voluntary, and the bus is privately owned and operated.

Elsewhere in the nation, schools are trying to keep religion in public schools - including prayers at high school football games and in classrooms, and nativity scenes on school property. The Freedom From Religion Foundation every year receives about 300 formal complaints, many involving school districts, according to Gaylor. Yet she called the Giles County case "one of the most egregious we've seen."

The Virginia House of Delegates this month passed a bill that would amend the state constitution to allow prayer on public school grounds, as long as the prayer is not led by school employees. The amendment was offered in response to conflict over a student-led prayer at a high school football game. A Senate panel later voted the bill down, leaving it little chance of passage this year.

In Giles, residents say the Ten Commandments display enjoys nearly universal support among those who grew up in the county. They say only outsiders, such as legal organizations in Richmond and Wisconsin, would question such a core aspect of the culture.

Some consider Jonathan Jochem to be such an outsider. An ACLU member, he moved to Giles County from Chicago 11 years ago and quickly fell in love with the open spaces and the generous people. "They're good Christians in the best sense of the word," he said. "But their knowledge of the Constitution is distorted."

Jochem was shocked when he first heard about the county's Bible Bus, and bothered by the school board's refusal to remove the commandments from public schools. Like several other community members, he supports the ACLU's lawsuit.

But with the current controversy spurred by an anonymous complaint, and a lawsuit expected to be introduced with two anonymous plaintiffs, Giles County residents say they have little reason to believe that there is much of a local fracture.

sieffk@washpost.com