Lawsuit Demands Indiana School Excuse Student's Absence for Religious Event
by Jim Brown
August 24, 2005
(AgapePress) - The United States Justice Department is participating in a lawsuit to compel an Indiana school district to accommodate the religious beliefs of one of its Christian students. The Justice Department has filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the youngster, who is suing for the right to be excused from school for the purpose of attending an annual religious festival. Ruth Scheidt and her son are members of the United Church of God, a denomination formed in 1995 after its members split with the late Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God. The United Church of God does not celebrate Christmas or Easter but observes a weeklong event called the Feast of Tabernacles.
But when Scheidt's son missed five days of class at Lowell (Indiana) Middle School to attend last year's celebration, Tri-Creek school officials refused to excuse the absences. That is because, under the policies of the Tri-Creek School Corporation School District, only illness, death of an immediate family member, and certain court appearances are considered excused absences.
United Church of God attorney Larry Darden notes that in a similar case more than 20 years ago, a student sued the Amarillo School District in Texas and won. "The schools have a duty to accommodate the religious beliefs of the children," he says, "unless [school officials] can show an undue hardship, which in this case they can't, of course."
In the case of the Tri-Creek district, the school officials impose "no limit on the number of excused absences, for example, for being ill," Darden says, "but for some reason they want to limit excused absences for religious purposes." At present, the school district's policy permits only a one-day absence for religious observances, a rule that the church's legal representative believes constitutes an infringement on the student-plaintiff's right to worship.
"I don't see it as religious bigotry," the Church of God lawyer says. "I see it as a bureaucratic mentality, where they've got a rule, and they're going to follow it no matter what -- without due regard, I think, to the religious beliefs of their students."
Darden finds the U.S. Justice Department's involvement in the Scheidt lawsuit encouraging. The attorney says he is hopeful settlement negotiations will resolve the case before a September 9 hearing.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
