Bible Reading in Public School

A federal district court in Florida has ordered a public school district to discontinue daily Bible readings in a fifth-grade class. Citing the constitutional separation of church and state, U.S. District Judge John Moore of Jacksonville issued a preliminary injunction October 4th against teacher Martha Mitchell's Bible reading at Emma Love Elementary School in Fernandina Beach.

Donald and Louise Hatch, whose daughter is enrolled in Mitchell's class, objected to the practice and filed the Hatch v. Marsh suit against the Nassau County School Board when Mitchell refused to discontinue it.

The school board voted unanimously to allow the religious readings. Said Board member W.D. Rodeffer, "I see nothing wrong in what Mrs. Mitchell has been doing. If this little girl doesn't like it, let's put her in a chair outside the door."

"When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." -- Ben Franklin

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