The Biblical Laws Bleeding Your Schools

[rug]

Fanatical does not even begin to describe the zeal with which the Fraternal Order of Eagles puts Ten Commandment monuments on public property—and taxpayers are on the hook.

05.29.16 12:01 AM ET
KATIE ZAVADSKI

A social organization that believes the Ten Commandments can cure juvenile delinquency has donated more than 150 granite slabs featuring the religious rules. The result: taxpayer funded legal battles over whether the donated monuments can sit on public property.

The Fraternal Order of Eagles has donated, by one count, at least 186 Ten Commandments monuments to state and local governments over the last 50 years. Bob Ritter, an attorney and atheist, has been documenting the gifts on his website as part of a project he began in 2008. By his count, 115 monuments donated by the Eagles currently sit on public land, including 20 at city halls and municipal buildings, 5 at state capitols, 29 by courthouses, and one at a school. There have been at least half a dozen lawsuits over the monuments.

“When you go to sue, you’re not suing the Eagles, because everyone has the right to give the government whatever they want. The government doesn’t have to take it,” Ritter said.

“They don’t have to defend these cases,” Ritter said. “The states and cities do, at public expense.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/29/the-biblical-laws-bleeding-your-schools.html

[edhopper]

1. A solution to the legal costs

when they want to put this religious crap in a public school, just say no.

[rug]

2. That's true.

It's trickier when these things have been there for decades and have acquired a patina of civic culture.

[edhopper]

3. True

but they should move them off the school campus, maybe donate them to a church rather than fight in court.

I think the atheist org is right in opposing them.

As for civic culture, it is similar (though in a different way) to monuments to Confederates on public grounds.
It is the wrong place for them, no matter how long they have been there.

[rug]

4. It's a stretch to compare the Ten Commandments to the Confederate States.

Before anyone objects and pops off about the Bible encouraging slavery they should read the U.S. Constitution, as promulgated.

[edhopper]

6. I am not comparing

I am saying it is inappropriate in a different way. But both are often left because of "civic culture".

[Igel]

5. The ire is misplaced.

It's not "Biblical Laws" or the "Fraternal Order of Eagles."

It's the school boards and administrations that set themselves up for lawsuits and then decide to fight instead of comply with whatever they're ordered to do by whoever's advocating for one thing or another. Then it's the school board deciding that the expense of the lawsuit is worth the damage to the funds properly used to fund education in their district or the staff/infrastructure for the district.

Alternatively, it's advocates who decide that the expense of the lawsuit is worth whatever financial cost it entails for the schools. After all, the threat of the lawsuit is really the threat to deny resources to children and their education versus the threat of having them exposed to the wrong ideas.

" 'They don't have to defend these cases,' Ritter said. 'The states and cities do, at public expense'." Spot on. But it's also not like Ritter has to bring the court cases, so "I don't have to bring these cases, but I do, and that entails public expense unless they just do what I tell them" would be equally true, whether it's this issue or some other issue. The question is, At what point is the issue large enough to merit the suit or defense against the suit?

Of course, when you're already on a given side, that's a really dangerous question to ask, because that side is always just and right and merited and virtuous.

[edhopper]

7. That is the question

but I can understand the feeling that the indoctrination of a public school promoting the Ten Commandments and leading children to think they are part of the civic structure is worth fighting.

Your question could also be posed to cases of police brutality or the Flint Michigan water scandal. They take public resources away from other services.
Sometimes law suits are the correct avenue.