RINGGOLD, Ga. — The school board for Fort Oglethorpe High School in Georgia upheld a policy Oct. 13 banning cheerleaders from displaying religious banners on the field at high-school football games. Supporters of the signs, banned Sept. 28 by a superintendent who had been told by a Ringgold, Ga., woman that they violate federal law, rallied outside the first school-board meeting since the decision. They then packed the meeting room with a crowd estimated by local media at between 80 and 100 people strong.
Renzo Wiggins, attorney for Catoosa County Public Schools, told spectators the tradition of having football players at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School burst onto the field through paper signs displaying Bible verses violated the First Amendment’s ban on government endorsement of religion.
“Virtually all of the cases rule that that has the imprimatur of a stamp of approval by the state,” Wiggins said in a video posted online by the Chattanooga Free Press. “Therefore it is prohibited under the [Constitution’s] Establishment Clause.”
Local attorney Matthew Bryan, meanwhile, said the signs were protected under the First Amendment’s clause guaranteeing free speech. “There are no cases in the federal appellate courts that deal with cheerleader signs, so there have been no cases to say that cheerleader signs violate the Establishment Clause,” Bryan said.
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