ACLU Sues Missouri Teacher for Promotion of Christianity in Classroom

May 1, 2003

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=12526&c=139

On May 1, 2003 the American Civil Liberties Union reported that "saying that a teacher here taught religious claims from the Bible as historical fact, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri and Americans United for Separation of Church and State today filed a lawsuit against school district officials for allowing the teacher to promote improper religious activities in his history class... The lawsuit, Welk v. Independence School District, was filed on behalf of Truman High School student Ashley Heckman and her mother, Evelyn Welk, both residents of Independence. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, charges that teacher Chris Earley promoted Christianity in his classroom instruction and asserts that school officials with the Independence School District refused to take appropriate steps to stop the teacher's actions. Heckman is a student in Earley's tenth-grade world history class."