School District to Defy Court, Post Ten Commandments

Some folks in these dusty, rural flatlands of Riverside County call this the Bible Belt of Southern California.

Indeed, passion for religious ethics runs so high that the local school board stands ready to break the law--as in the U.S. Constitution--to promote what it says are 10 more important laws established on Mt. Sinai 3,000 years ago.

Trustees of the Val Verde Unified School District have decided by a 3-1 vote to post the Ten Commandments in the offices of its 12 schools, flouting a 19-year-old ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that to do so is unconstitutional.

Forget the Supreme Court, local trustees say; there are higher principles at stake.

“There comes a point in your life when you need to know what you stand for,” said school board member Jan Dotson. “I don’t go out of my way to break the law . . . but you have to take a stand.”

Dotson said she isn’t worried that the decision to ignore a Supreme Court ruling will send an improper message to the district’s 10,200 students.

“We’re not saying, ‘Break all laws.’ But if there’s a law that’s improper, maybe people need to say, ‘We disagree with it’ and make a stand,” she said.

The school board’s decision to post the Ten Commandments has won support from many local parents--but is triggering strong opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Make no mistake about it, the district will be sued by someone--either us or someone else--and the district will lose big time,” said Michael Small, the ACLU’s chief counsel in Los Angeles. “It’s a shame they’ve decided to waste taxpayer funds to fight this.”

The right to display the commandments on school grounds was explicitly rejected in 1980 by the Supreme Court, which overturned a Kentucky state law that required schools to post the biblical rules.

Since then, efforts to display the commandments at schools elsewhere have been attempted, with mixed results.

In Kentucky, the Jackson County school board last summer figured that it could sidestep the Supreme Court ruling--which found fault with the use of public funds in posting the commandments--by allowing volunteers to print and display them.

In August, copies of the Ten Commandments were displayed in the district’s classrooms, and so far no one has objected, said Jackson County schools attorney Timothy Crawford.

“We’ve been lucky,” he said. “So far, neither the ACLU or any similar organization has written a letter or made any legal threats.”

Crawford said the district will be ready with a defense, if needed: Other religious organizations will be given free access to post their tenets as well. So far, there have been no such requests, Crawford said.

A bill that includes authority for states to display the commandments in public places has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure is now bogged down in a House-Senate conference committee and will probably stall this year.

The financially strapped Val Verde school district, which serves parts of Perris, Moreno Valley and Mead Valley, would hardly seem to be in a position to press the issue, given the legal costs that may be in store. But the majority of trustees say they will stand on their principles--and worry later about the cost of defending them.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess,” said Dotson.

She said it is particularly ironic that the Supreme Court will not allow the Ten Commandments in schools, since there is artwork depicting them in the court’s chamber in Washington.

The idea of displaying the laws of Moses was proposed by district Supt. Fred Workman during staff discussions about how to instill morals and ethics among youth. The talk was laced with references to the fatal shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

There was quick and strong consensus that posting the commandments seemed appropriate, and when Workman presented the proposal to the trustees at their September meeting, it was approved unanimously with virtually no discussion.

There was no school district lawyer at the meeting, however, because the district can’t afford to have an attorney present at all sessions.

District officials are still undecided about how to post the commandments and what material to display them on.

The board decision received little publicity, but two trustees said they later learned of the high court ruling and wanted to reconsider their votes. The matter was revisited at the board’s meeting earlier this month. Again, there was no lawyer present.

School board President Bob Givens declared that he wasn’t going to retreat from his position.

“I don’t recognize the Supreme Court’s laws any more than I recognize city laws,” he told fellow trustees. “It is the views of the majority of the people that count.”

Supt. Workman said he stood by his proposal.

“I believe our nation will ultimately vindicate what we do,” he said. “It’s time to put a code back in place, and I remain firm in my recommendation.”

Ignoring High Court Ruling ‘Is Anarchy’

But trustee Virginia Wyatt-Denney, who voted in September to post the commandments, changed her mind last week and abstained. To ignore the high court’s ruling, she said in an interview, “is anarchy.”

“I’m a devout Christian, and I respect the Ten Commandments,” she said. “But there are Hindus and Native Americans and others who don’t subscribe to at least the first two commandments.”

Aside from the religious issue, she said she was bothered that the district was openly violating the separation of church and state.

“It sends a bad message to our youth,” she said. “How can we expect youth to obey campus rules and codes of conduct if we snub our nose at the highest court in the land? And I don’t want to spend district dollars in defending us against a lawsuit. These same board members complain that we don’t have enough pencils and books in the classrooms.”

The ACLU’s Small said he is amazed that trustees believe the views of the board majority should outweigh the law.

“I don’t know what version of the Constitution [Givens is] reading, but if the majority of people in his community voted to kick blacks out, under his reasoning that would be fine,” Small said. “Educators must teach children that it’s the rule of law that governs, not the whims of administrators and bureaucrats.”

Reaction to the controversy is mixed among students at Val Verde High School.

“I don’t think they should post them,” said Arlene Aguilera, a 15-year-old sophomore. “Not everyone believes in God, and it’s not fair to them.”

Latoya Garrison, a 16-year-old junior, disagreed. “These are basically good laws for everybody. You shouldn’t steal, you shouldn’t kill, you shouldn’t commit adultery. These are basic things that aren’t all religious.”

Fellow junior Frank Arriaga, 17, said the board’s decision to ignore the Supreme Court bothers him. “They are setting a bad example,” he said. “They are breaking the law, and then they tell us not to. It’s like, ‘It’s OK to break the rules when you think you are right.’ ”

Supporting the district’s efforts is the Congress for American Principles, a Downey-based organization “to help young people in schools by teaching them principles to live by,” said its founder, machine-shop owner Edward DiLoreto.

He argues that the Ten Commandments aren’t so much a sacred text associated with Judaism and Christianity, as the Supreme Court held, but a historical document of timeless value.

In 1995, DiLoreto wanted to spend $400 to erect a sign bearing the Ten Commandments for display at the Downey High School athletic field. The school refused his request and on Monday a federal appeals court in San Francisco sided with the district.

Associated Press contributed to this story.