Roark v. South Iron R-1 School Dist.
| Decision Date | 08 January 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 4:06CV392 CDP.,4:06CV392 CDP. |
| Citation | 540 F.Supp.2d 1047 |
| Parties | Lonnie ROARK, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SOUTH IRON R-1 SCHOOL DISTRICT, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri |
Anthony E. Rothert, American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, St. Louis, MO, Leonard J. Frankel, Frankel and Rubin, Clayton, MO, for Plaintiffs.
David M. Corry, Stephen M. Crampton, Liberty Counsel, Lynchburg, VA, for Defendants.
Plaintiffs are parents of children who attend South Iron Elementary School. They bring this action to challenge the South Iron R-1 School District's decision to allow members of Gideons International to distribute Bibles to elementary school students during the school day. The parties have filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The undisputed evidence shows that both the old practice and the new policy were undertaken for the purpose of promoting Christianity and they have the effect of endorsing religion to impressionable elementary school students. The school policies violate the Establishment Clause, and I will grant plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and deny defendants' motion.
The South Iron R-1 School District has allowed the Gideons to pass out Bibles to the fifth grade, during class time and on school property, for several years. After a dispute over the practice arose in 2005, the District was advised by several sources that allowing the Bible distribution in classrooms during school hours was unconstitutional. It rejected that advice, overruled the decision of its superintendent, and voted to allow the distribution. Bibles were again distributed in October of 2005. Plaintiffs are parents who object to the distribution.
A week before the hearing scheduled on plaintiffs' request for preliminary injunction, the School District adopted a new policy that would allow outside groups to distribute literature, including Bibles, on school property in designated locations not to include the classroom. Despite this last-minute change in policy, I issued a preliminary injunction on September 5, 2006, enjoining defendants and any persons acting in concert with them from distributing or allowing distribution of Bibles to elementary school children on school property during the school day. Doe v. South Iron R-1 School Dist., 453 F.Supp.2d 1093 (E.D.Mo.2006). The Court of Appeal affirmed that ruling. Doe v. South Iron R-1 School Dist., 498 F.3d 878 (8th Cir.2007).
Plaintiffs' amended complaint alleges that South Iron's past practice of allowing the Gideons to distribute Bibles in the fifth grade classrooms (Count I) and South Iron's new policy allowing the distribution of Bibles in the cafeteria or in front of the administrative offices during the school day to elementary school students (Count II) violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs also allege violations of the Missouri Constitution (Counts III & IV). Plaintiffs seek summary judgment on Counts I and II, and defendants seek summary judgment on all counts.
After the parties had briefed their summary judgment motions, the Board again changed its policy. In defendants' supplemental filing, they notified the Court of the policy changes and argued that two of the changes are relevant to the Court's decision on summary judgment. Plaintiffs have moved to strike the new evidence, arguing that I should not consider the latest policy changes.
South Iron R-1 School District is a public school district in Iron County, Missouri. It operates elementary, junior high, and high schools in a single building with a shared entrance, cafeteria, library, and gymnasiums. The Board of Directors of South Iron R-1 School District is the entity that is ultimately responsible for the operation of the District.
Plaintiff Lesa Alcorn has two children who attend South Iron schools and who both received Bibles in their fifth grade classrooms at South Iron Elementary. Plaintiff John Doe has two children: one currently attends South Iron schools and the other has already graduated. His child who currently attends South Iron received a Bible in fifth grade from church members who came to the school. Plaintiff Lonney Roark has two children who currently attend South Iron Elementary but have not yet reached the fifth grade. None of the plaintiffs' children were in fifth grade during the 2005-2006 school year.
Defendants David Brewer, Mike Ruble, Mike Mayberry, Paul Daggett, Sarah Sullivan,2 Darren Kelly, and Jeff Ruble are the current members of the South Iron School Board. Brewer, Ruble, Mayberry, and Daggett are named in their individual capacities and in their official capacities as members of the School Board. The other three School Board members are named in their official capacities only. Also named as defendants, solely in their official capacities, are the current superintendent of the school district, Bradley Crocker, and Shirley Bieser, who was principal of the elementary school at relevant times.3
For as long as anyone can remember, representatives of Gideons International have distributed Bibles to fifth-grade students in the South Iron schools without, until recently, any objection. Board members Michael Ruble and Jeff Ruble, and former Board member Jeff Casteel recall receiving Bibles in their South Iron fifth grade classrooms when they attended school. Jeff Ruble testified that Bible distribution had been occurring at South Iron for 30 years or more. The distribution was always to fifth graders during the school day in a classroom with a teacher or principal present. The Gideons would briefly tell about their organization and then invite the children to take a Bible. Neither the teacher nor the principal actively participated in the Bible distribution.
The avowed purpose of Gideons International "is the promotion of the Gospel of Christ to all people, to the end that they might come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior." The purpose of distributing Gideon Bibles to school children is to encourage the children to accept Christ as their personal savior. Gideons believe their Bibles are a Christian version of God's word and that children would benefit from knowing God's, word. Although the Bibles distributed in 2005 did not contain such a passage, the Bible received by Alcorn's daughter in her fifth grade classroom contained a place for students to sign under the written statement: "My Decision to Receive Christ as My Saviour."
A few other outside groups have had access to the South Iron students and public school facilities in years past, but no other group besides the Gideons has had access to the students during the school day, in the classroom, to distribute noncurriculum related materials. The former superintendent, Homer Lewis, recalled that the only other group who visited a classroom during the school day was a group affiliated with the railroad who came to discuss railroad safety issues to a kindergarten class ten years ago. Principal Bieser was not aware of any outside group, other than the Gideons, who had distributed information to students during the school day. Other groups, mostly governmental organizations, had been invited to participate in the school's annual health fair, which is offered as part of the curriculum on health, safety, and welfare. In addition, the Girl Scouts were allowed to pass out information to parents at an evening open house.
After attending a regional meeting of superintendents offered by Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in the summer of 2004, former-superintendent Homer Lewis decided to stop the practice of in-class Bible distribution because he believed it violated the Establishment Clause. In the fall of 2004 when the Gideons called the elementary school to arrange the annual distribution of Bibles, Lewis refused to authorize it. At the School Board's meeting on February 7, 2005, a representative of the local Ministerial Alliance asked the Board to reconsider Lewis's decision. Lewis explained to the Board why he believed the distribution of Bibles was illegal based on the information he had learned during meetings over the previous summer and on advice he had received from the school's attorney, and from the Missouri. Council of School Administrators' attorney, a member of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, an attorney with the District's insurance carrier, and one other attorney. He further stated that if the Board wanted to allow the distribution of Bibles at school, it should adopt an "open forum" policy that would not allow discrimination against any organization. The Board made no decision or comment on the suggestion of an open forum policy, but instead voted to "pretend this meeting never happened, and to continue to allow the Gideons to distribute Bibles as we have done in the past."
The Bible distribution was again discussed by the Board at a September 6, 2005 meeting. Two local pastors and a member of the Gideons addressed the Board. Superintendent Lewis read letters from the District's attorney, the ACLU and the District's insurance provider, reiterating the illegality of their current practice of Bible distribution. The Board discussed alternative arrangements, such as letting the students distribute the Bibles. The Gideons, however, indicated that they must be present when their Bibles were distributed. The Board was not provided any information suggesting that it would be legal to distribute Bibles during class time. Despite this, Board member David Brewer moved to allow the Gideons to come into the South Iron schools and distribute Bibles to fifth graders. Mike Ruble seconded the motion and it passed.
Shortly after this meeting, Superintendent Lewis submitted his letter of resignation, effective at the...
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Roark v. South Iron R-1 School Dist.
...elementary school students during the school day. The district court granted plaintiffs summary judgment. Roark v. S. Iron R-1 Sch. Dist., 540 F.Supp.2d 1047, 1056-65 (E.D.Mo.2008). The court entered a permanent injunction identical to the preliminary injunction we upheld in Doe, 498 F.3d a......