School sued for 'trashing' Bibles
Lawsuit claims teacher threw students' holy books in garbage
By Jon E. Dougherty
� 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Officials at the Lynn Lucas Middle School in Willis, Texas, have
been served with a lawsuit filed on behalf of three students who
allege that one teacher forbade two teens from carrying their
Bibles in school while another prohibited a student from using a
book cover displaying the Ten Commandments.
The federal lawsuit, filed in Houston and served on school
officials Monday, alleges that the school violated four
provisions of the U.S. Constitution, three in the Texas State
Constitution and two state laws.
The suit alleges that teacher Sara Flottman, on seeing two
teenage sisters carrying Bibles to a Saturday morning make-up
class March 11, led both of them to the principal's office, threw
the Bibles into the trash and declared, "We don't allow this
garbage here."
"We arrived at school and she was checking on us,"said Angela
Harbison, 15. She and her sister, 13-year-old Amber Harbison,
are two of three plaintiffs named in the suit.
After seizing Angela's Bible, Flottman "waved (my) Bible in
Amber's face and said, 'Do you have one of these?'" Angela said.
Angela said another teacher was in charge when she and her sister
brought Bibles to previous Saturday classes. March 11 was the
first day Flottman had handled the class when the girls were
present, said the teens.
"My daughters called me, were hysterical, and said, `Mama, they
took our Bibles and called them garbage and threw them in the
garbage and then threatened to call Child Protective Services,'"
Deborah Bedenbender, 37, a Willis homemaker, said Tuesday. Her
children are from a previous marriage; her current husband, Jody
Bedenbender, 50, has joined her and the teens in the suit.
Mrs. Bedenbender said she calmed her daughters and then asked to
speak with Flottman. According to the suit, an angry exchange
followed, during which Flottmann allegedly threatened to have the
teens removed by Child Protective Services if their mother failed
to come and get them within a half hour.
Bedenbender said she went to pick them up, retrieved the Bibles
from the trash and, within a week, withdrew them from the school
district. Three others of her nine children are still attending
the district, while Angela and Amber are being home-schooled at
present.
Meanwhile, the suit also alleges that a teacher required Jeremy
Pasket, 13, to remove a Ten Commandments book cover from a book.
Jeremy, the suit alleges, was also carrying a Bible and was told
by a teacher identified only as "Mrs. Billingsly" to put it away
during free reading time and not to bring it back to school.
The boy and his father, Robert Pasket, a welder from Willis,
joined the Bedenbenders in the lawsuit.
An earlier Houston Chronicle report noted that neither plaintiff
family could be reached for comment.
Specifically, the suit accuses the school district of violating
the pupils' constitutional right to free speech and of violating
the Constitution's establishment clause, which prohibits
excessive government entanglement with religion. School
officials are also accused of violating the children's right to
free exercise of religion and denying them equal protection under
the Constitution.
Mathew Staver, a lawyer whose Liberty Counsel legal defense
organization was founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, filed the lawsuit
May 19 on behalf of the three pupils and their parents. Since
federal courts may also hear cases alleging violations of state
laws if they are accompanied by federal violations, explains
Staver, the suit alleges violation of freedom of speech, free
exercise of religion and the right to equal protection under the
Texas Constitution.
The district also violated state laws on parental rights and
exercise of religion, the lawsuit alleges.
The district has 20 days to respond to the suit, said Staver.
"Students have a constitutional right to bring religious
literature to school and read this literature during their free
time," said Staver. "Students also have the right to put a
religious book cover on their own books."
"We would like the school's cooperation to make sure this
wouldn't happen again," he said. "If they can't give us some
assurances, we're going to ask the court." He added that he hoped
his clients and the school district could reach an agreement that
would make it possible for the Bedenbender's to re-enroll Amber
and Angela.
"Schools are not totalitarian regimes and students are not
robots," said a Liberty Counsel press release. "Schools are not
religion-free zones."
WorldNetDaily made repeated attempts to reach officials at Lynn
Lucas Middle School, but spokesperson Susan Parker told WND the
school "couldn't comment" on the case.
Named as defendants are the school district, the school board,
Superintendent Kay Karr, Lynn Lucas Middle School Principal
Rayford McIlhaney, Vice Principals Keith Wienecke and Rhonda
Hill, and Flottman.
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