At their regular meeting Tuesday, trustees for the\u00a0Kern County\u00a0Superintendent of\u00a0Schools Board of Education\u00a0moved to prepare a resolution ordering the placement of a display containing six historically significant documents in each of its schools.<\/p>\n
The documents to be displayed include the Declaration of\u00a0Independence; the preamble to the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Constitution; the Bill of Rights; the national anthem; the Mayflower Compact; and the Ten Commandments.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the meeting, Area 3 Trustee and Board Chairwoman\u00a0Mary Little\u00a0said the documents provide a moral and legal foundation of\u00a0the United States\u00a0and the Ten Commandments have shaped cultural norms and laws in Western culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do have a religious significance and I do understand everybody\u2019s concern,\u201d Little said at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur court of law is based on the Ten Commandments. It\u2019s the breaking of laws that our system was built upon and it has the legal considerations of that. (The Ten Commandments) has the constitutional issues particularly concerning the separation of church and state, which, there is no separation of church and state.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board is being backed in its efforts by the\u00a0Liberty Counsel, a\u00a0Florida-based law firm focused on religious issues.\u00a0Liberty Counsel\u00a0drafted a resolution for the board which is \u201clitigation proof,\u201d according to\u00a0Mariah Gondeiro, an attorney with the organization, which states it embraces a worldview that is historically Christian and biblical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re living at a time in this country when the powers that be don\u2019t want the public to be educated on our rights,\u201d Gondeiro told the board Tuesday, joining the meeting remotely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more important than ever that young children are aware of the foundation of our government, our republican form of government, especially before they go to college where people are just spewing anti-America, anti-hate rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n
The documents and the display would be paid for by private organizations so no public money would go toward the project, but Gondeiro noted installing the displays would likely lead to litigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if a private organization were to fund this, it\u2019s still going to be tied up in litigation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When the board last discussed this topic in June, attorneys with the\u00a0American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California\u00a0sent letters warning of legal action.<\/p>\n
Little noted\u00a0Liberty Counsel\u00a0has agreed to represent the\u00a0Board of Education\u00a0for free should litigation be filed.<\/p>\n
The cost of entering the\u00a0Kern County\u00a0Superintendent of Schools into a national debate on religion in schools was worth it to place foundational documents in schools, Little said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf (litigation) is going to benefit and put some great documents in our schools, why would I be opposed to that?\u201d Little told The Californian.<\/p>\n
If the resolution moves forward, KCSOS would be the first district in the state to make such a move, something some board members saw as a bonus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s kind of cool that we make history,\u201d said Area 5 Trustee\u00a0Lori Eskew.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere in\u00a0Kern County, it seems some school boards follow our lead,\u201d said Area 6 Trustee\u00a0James Robinson. \u201cTake Title IX, for example. Oh, what wonderful things could happen should we decide to pass this resolution and other districts pick it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Title IX is a 1972 federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.<\/p>\n
Reactions from the public were mixed. Only a few people gave comment on the matter, with speakers fairly evenly split between being for and against the displays.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis topic should be a no-brainer,\u201d said\u00a0Dennis McLean. \u201cIn this culture, we need faith and trust and truth for our children. It should be in all public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsey Parker, who said she had two children in\u00a0Kern County\u00a0public schools, said faith is a personal matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we put one religion\u2019s commandments on a classroom wall, even with good intentions, it sends the wrong message,\u201d Parker said. \u201cIt tells some kids that they belong more than others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little called the resolution \u201ca working document\u201d and said it would be discussed at the board\u2019s next meeting. The KCSOS board meets the second Tuesday of every month.<\/p>\n
Because the second Tuesday of next month is\u00a0Nov. 11,\u00a0Veterans Day, the board\u2019s meeting has been rescheduled to\u00a0Thursday, Nov. 13.<\/p>\n
If the county\u00a0Board of Education\u00a0were to pass a resolution to display the documents, most schools in\u00a0Kern County\u00a0would not be directly impacted.<\/p>\n
The board of KCSOS only oversees six community schools with about 400 students in alternative education settings. Board members Tuesday asked that a list of the impacted schools be included in next month\u2019s discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kern County Board of Education\u00a0will hear and potentially vote on a resolution to place a display of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,719,721,1846,11783,13,8584,11782,11781,3006],"class_list":["post-12907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-justice","tag-law","tag-lawsuit","tag-liberty-counsel","tag-politics","tag-politics-of-the-united-states","tag-separation-of-church-and-state","tag-ten-commandments","tag-title-ix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}