
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990                   TAG: 9005170647
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HARRISONBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGE DISBANDS PRIVATE BIBLE CLASSES ON SCHOOL GROUNDS

An elementary school in Shenandoah County violated the constitutional separation of church and state by pressuring students to attend privately run Bible classes, a federal judge ruled today.

U.S. District Judge James H. Michael Jr. issued a temporary restraining order against the Shenandoah County School Board that applies to W.W. Robinson Elementary School.

The judge ordered buses used for the classes to be removed immediately from school grounds or adjacent streets and prohibited religious instructors from coming onto school property. He also prohibited teachers from encouraging students to participate in religious instruction or helping register them.

The American Civil Liberties Union asked for the order in a lawsuit filed on behalf of an unnamed third-grade boy and his mother. The suit sought $675,000 in damages.

The ACLU's lawsuit said teachers pressured students to join the supposedly volunteer Bible classes held in buses on school grounds. The third-grader, the suit said, was harassed by teachers at the elementary school when his parents refused to allow his attendance.

The Weekday Religious Education Organization has offered Bible classes in buses or trailers parked on or near public school grounds since 1982, when classes were forced out of the schools.

Michael said he will rule later on the merits of the case and whether to issue a permanent injunction.

But in the order written Wednesday and filed today, the judge said the boy and his mother "have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits. They have also shown irreparable harm. The balance of harms is strongly in their favor as is the public interest."

Michael said the school may continue to provide enrollment lists to the Religious Education Organization. But he said the enrollment cards based on those lists must be mailed to parents rather than distributed in classes.

The lawsuit said children are given candy or other rewards for returning sign-up cards with the signature of a parent or guardian.

Philip Stone, an attorney for the School Board, said last week that the board prohibits the alleged abuses cited by the ACLU. Stone said the board was unaware of the allegations until this month but acknowledged that school officials have received isolated complaints about the religious program in recent years.

by CNB