• “Hold on, let’s back up,” School Board Chairman J.B. Buckland said today when asked about the Ten Commandments lawsuit. “We don’t have no (sic) Ten Commandments. We have historical documents up.”

Three months after it tempted litigation by voting to display the Ten Commandments in public schools, the Giles County School Board finds itself in federal court.

A lawsuit filed September 13 by civil liberties groups asserts that the display in Narrows High School violates the constitutional separation of church and state. The suit seeks an injunction ordering the removal of the Ten Commandments, attorney fees and “nominal damages to compensate the plaintiffs for the injury to their constitutional rights.”

Putting the Ten Commandments on a wall in the school’s main hallway, near a trophy case, is “an endorsement by the school of the religious principles set forth in the Ten Commandments and the Bible and a rejection of other religions,” says the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

The groups are suing on behalf of a Narrows High student and one of his parents, identified in court papers only as “Doe 1” and “Doe 2.

“Pseudonyms protect the plaintiffs from retaliation in the heated environment that has persisted in Giles County since the display became an issue last year, the lawsuit states.

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Disclaimer: No judgment on choice of news should be inferred due to the Publisher’s residence being in Narrows, Virginia J