ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 9, 1996 TAG: 9601110047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A Virginia couple who wanted their local school board to pay for the interpreter their deaf son relied on while attending a religious high school lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.
The court, without comment, turned away the religious-freedom arguments by Stafford County residents Robert and Kathleen Goodall.
The Goodalls' son, Matthew, is profoundly deaf. To attend regular schools, he required the special education service of a cued-speech interpreter.
In cued speech, the shape and position of a speaker's hands together with the shape of his lips make every sound visually distinct. Until 1984, the Stafford County school district provided Matthew with such an interpreter at no cost.
But beginning in 1984, the Goodalls placed Matthew in private Christian schools. When the county school district refused to provide an interpreter for Matthew at his religious school, Kathleen Goodall served as his sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade interpreter.
During Matthew's high school years at Fredericksburg Christian School, the Goodalls hired an interpreter for about $13,000 a year. They sued the county for reimbursement, contending that having to pay constituted a substantial burden on their religious freedom.
Specifically, the Goodalls contended that the county's refusal to pay violated the family's First Amendment right to exercise their religious beliefs and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
A federal judge and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Goodalls
The Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that public school boards do not violate the constitutionally required separation of church and state by providing interpreters for deaf students who attend religious schools. But the high court never has said failure to provide such help violates someone's religious rights.
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