STAUNTON, Va. (AP) - The Staunton School Board decided Monday night to allow Bible classes to continue this year for elementary school students, despite staunch objections from a board member who also is a pastor.
"I think WRE is wrong for our school children," said the Rev. Edward Scott, who serves on the board. "It belongs in the homes and in the churches."
The board voted 5-1 to conduct a yearlong review of the program to determine if the needs of both the students going to the classes and those who opt out are being met.
Some parents asked the school board to eliminate or modify the program, saying the children who opt out are stigmatized and have little to do while waiting for the other children to return to class.
Several hundred attended Monday night's meeting, and much of the crowd gave the board a standing ovation after the vote.
Scott argued that the lessons should be offered after school, and that studying the issue for a year is a way to put off dealing with it.
"My feeling is at the end of the year we'll find ourselves revisiting this and that at the end of the year, we will have even less will to do what is right for the children left behind," Scott said.
The weekly classes have been a tradition in Staunton and some other school districts in western Virginia for more than 60 years.
Supporters of the classes say they teach children moral values.
More than 400 people showed up to weigh in on the issue at a contentious school board meeting in December, and more than 1,000 signed a petition urging the school board to keep the classes.
The Bible classes began in Virginia in 1929 after a majority of students failed a simple Bible test.
The lessons were conducted inside public school classrooms until 1948, when the Supreme Court ruled that the lessons violated the principle of separation of church and state. A few years later, the court revisited the issue and approved classes held away from school premises.
Most communities have ended the classes, but the 20 school divisions that have kept the classes generally stretch along Interstate 81 in western Virginia, known to some as the state's "Bible Belt." In the Staunton area, more than 80 percent of first-, second- and third-graders participate.
Board member Angie Whitesell said Monday's motion serves the best interest of all the students.
"My conscience tells me this community needs this program, and we need to keep it," Whitesell said. "We also need a program for the children who are not released."
