Freedom From Religion Foundation wins battle to force removal of Ten Commandments from Pennsylvania school
A school district in Pennsylvania has lost a court case which was filed against it by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) in an attempt to get a Ten Commandments monument removed from school property.
The Connellsville School District paid the law firm that represented it $64,000 to fight the FFRF’s claim that the monument violated the Constitution.
The Ten Commandments monument outside the Connellsville Area School District Junior High School (photo/ FFRF)
Despite their efforts, however, U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry ruled that “the Ten Commandments monument at the Connellsville Area School District Junior High School runs afoul of the Establishment Clause.”
Although the school district lost the case, the group responsible for urging the district to fight the lawsuit claims that the case still needed to be fought on principle.
“It doesn’t matter what the cost was, it was a fight that needed to be fought,” David Show of the Thou Shall Not Move told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. “That’s something that should not be a problem in our schools.”
“We warned the school district that we would win,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of FFRF.
After the ruling in August, the Ten Commandments monument was not initially removed from school property because the family who filed a complaint with the FFRF concerning the monument no longer attends or visits the school. Some residents formed the Thou Shall Not Move movement and persuaded the school to reverse its decision.
The monument was removed in October and placed on the property of a church nearby the school.
