SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Supporters of Christian teachers are hailing an appellate court decision as a mandate to permit faculty to participate in religious activities in public school buildings during their off hours.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that a Sioux Falls, S.D., elementary teacher has the right to attend an after-school Bible club meeting in her school building.
The appellate court, in an opinion filed Sept. 3, upheld a lower court’s ruling that Barbara Wigg could participate in the Good News Club at other schools and reversed a lower court ruling preventing her from doing so at her own school, Laura B. Anderson Elementary School.
“In an effort to avoid an establishment of religion, (the Sioux Falls School District) unnecessarily limits the ability of its employees to engage in private religious speech on their own time,” the court ruled.
Mathew D. Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Fla.-based legal organization that represented Wiggs, said it was the first time such a ruling had been made in this country.
Share with others: