Pennsylvania School District to Remove Ten Commandments Monument
- Updated Feb 22, 2017
A Pennsylvania school district says it will remove a Ten Commandments monument after atheists filed a complaint.
According to SRNNews.com, the New Kensington-Arnold School District--about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh--has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit by taking down the six-foot tall monument and paying $164,000 in legal fees.
The conflict began when an atheist mother of a student who attends the school filed a complaint in 2012. The atheist organization Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) took up the case.
The organization’s co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said the FFRF is glad the legal dispute is over, but that a religious monument such as the Ten Commandments monument should never have been allowed on public school property in the first place.
The settlement reached by the school district and the FFRF entails the district removing the monument within 30 days.
Although some parents are happy with the decision, others expressed concern:
“It’s been there for a long time, it’s not hurting anybody, and the school is in such disrepair. If they’re going to worry about things like that, that really makes me wonder why?” parent Benjamin Josefoski said, as quoted by CBS Pittsburgh.
The school district's lawyers declined to comment on the case.
Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Publication date: February 22, 2017
