NC school district rejects Christian display after debate over legality and legibility
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education voted against a proposal to put a Ten Commandments display in every building
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The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education in North Carolina shot down an illegal—and completely unnecessary—plan to erect posters of the Ten Commandments, alongside the Constitution and Bill of Rights, at the entrances or in the libraries of every building in the district.
The main reason they rejected the plan was fear that they would be sued over the obvious promotion of Christianity.
The idea came from right-wing board member Brian Sloan, who had an image of the poster ready to go. When you look at it, you can immediately tell his thought process: If I only put up the Ten Commandments, it’ll be declared illegal, but if I include other historical documents on the poster, I might be able to get away with it!
There’s a glaring problem with that idea, though, and other board members noticed it right away.
The Constitution is a lengthy document. The Bill of Rights, while shorter, is still pretty long. What you have there, in other words, is a poster of the Ten Commandments next to two clip art images that no one was ever meant to read... which kind of gives away the whole game.
It led to this hilarious exchange on Monday during a board meeting:
SLOAN: What I was wanting to do is, I've already talked to the design company about, uh, making the Constitution a lot easier to read. And finding the correct photograph that they could put in to make it more legible is tough. So what I was planning on doing is making the Ten Commandments less legible so they would be the same. I don't think I'll ever make anybody happy, and I've got a lot of time and money invested in this…
…
BOARD MEMBER ANITA KURN: I would like to just make sure we're clear on what exactly we're voting on, and if it's gonna be where we have these other two documents more clearly stated, or that document more blurred, and where it's more of an artistic expression instead of, you know, it being readable. So I just want to make sure that I'm clear on what I'm voting on.
SLOAN: Yes, ma'am. I'll be willing to make those changes.
KURN: Which one? Making it more legible or making it more illegible?
SLOAN: We cannot make it more legible, so we're gonna have to make the Commandments less legible.
KURN: Okay, so we're moving to where the Ten Commandments won't be as—probably the equal amount of legibility as in, for example, the Bill of Rights?
SLOAN: Or less.
KURN: Okay. So we're kind of moving to it being a more artistic expression, you would say?
SLOAN: No, ma'am. I won't hide behind artwork.
So the Ten Commandments is definitely supposed to be legible… but maybe it could be a little blurred so that you have to squint to read it… but if you squint just right, you would be able to read it… even though the other documents cannot be read.
That’s legal, right?
No. Of course it’s not. And board member Doug Knight pointed out the legal problems with even attempting this. He noted that Louisiana is already trying this stunt of putting the Ten Commandments in every classroom in order to get to the Supreme Court, and if they succeed, perhaps this is worth discussing, but until then, there was no reason for this particular school district to waste money on a costly legal battle.
“I don’t want to pay (our attorney for) them to take something all the way to Supreme Court. That’s a lot of legal fees. We have already talked about a budget and the tightness of our budget,” he said.
Knight said it would cost the district “thousands of dollars” to defend a lawsuit in court.
“I don’t want to lose that money that we could use for our nurses, our counselors, for our teachers and teachers aides that really make a big difference,” he said. “To me, our job isn’t to make news or get on national media. It’s to do what is best for kids.”
It would cost a lot more than “thousands of dollars,” for what it’s worth. But his point is solid. The courts have already rejected these kinds of displays.
At one point, Knight even mentioned how he received an email “from a national organization saying… we'd probably hear from them” if they approved these displays.
It’s true. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the district a letter before the meeting warning them about moving forward. North Carolina law allows public schools to display documents of “historical significance,” echoing a Supreme Court ruling that says the Ten Commandments can go up on public property as long as there’s secular context. The law also requires those displays to include “a prominent sign quoting the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
So a barely legible tiny-font version of the First Amendment wouldn’t count.
FFRF attorney Chris Line warned the district against going through with this proposal:
We request that Iredell-Statesville Schools honor the Constitution and safeguard the freedom of conscience of school children and the rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children. Not only is this required by the Establishment Clause, it is sound policy, as any challenges to the displays could be costly.
Sloan eventually asked everyone to vote on the motion… but couldn’t get anyone to second it.
Could they just postpone the idea to a future meeting?
After the full discussion, the board voted 4-3 against postponing it... which effectively killed the proposal for good.
FFRF is now taking a well-deserved victory lap:
FFRF is glad to report that reason and our secular Constitution have prevailed in this matter.
“The First Commandment is reason enough to reject this scheme, since a public school board has no business dictating to other peoples’ children how many gods to worship, which gods to worship or whether to worship any gods at all,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We’re pleased that the school board officials are instead upholding the First Amendment.”
Incidentally, Sloan’s own biography makes it clear why he can’t be relied on to do what’s best for the children. Just look at how he describes himself:
Mr. Sloan said that he doesn't read often, but when he does find the time to read, the only book he reads [is] the Bible. He enjoys watching Duck Dynasty…
No decent public school board member should be proud of reading a grand total of one (1) book ever. And even he admits he “doesn’t read often”! This isn’t exactly news, though. Sloan has previously said he could totally take over the role of high school principal, something that didn’t go over well with the professionals who actually do the work.
Does the community care? When he ran for the seat in 2022, he was unopposed in the general election.
Maybe after this incident, where he’s trying to drag the district into a potentially costly and failing legal battle in order to satisfy his own faith-based ego, someone will challenge him next time around.
“To me, our job isn’t to make news or get on national media. It’s to do what is best for kids.”
How did this guy end up on a school board? And can we clone a few thousand?
Anybody else a little skeeved by him describing himself as “forgiven” - like, for what, exactly?