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Early this year, Heather Rooks, a freshman School Board member in Peoria, Ariz., received an email from the district’s lawyer telling her that her practice of reading Bible verses at board meetings was illegal, according to a recently filed lawsuit. But at the body’s meeting on March 9, she read 1 Corinthians 16:13 anyway.
“Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong,” she said before thanking Cotton Boll Elementary teachers and students for a tour of their school, then congratulating the Peoria High Panthers boys’ basketball team on winning the 4A Arizona state championship.
Board President David Sandoval interrupted Rooks to remind her that the staff attorney had told board members that reading scripture “from this side of the dais” violated the establishment clause, which prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”
Months later, Rooks stopped reading Bible verses but promised that her lawyers would “handle this matter.”
Rooks is now suing the Peoria Unified School District, which she helps lead. In a 28-page complaint filed Sept. 26 in the U.S. District Court for Arizona, Rooks accuses district officials of violating her First Amendment free speech rights. Her lawsuit argues that public officials have routinely quoted scripture while performing their official duties, including presidents stretching from George Washington to Joe Biden, as well as Arizona lawmakers who start legislative sessions with a prayer.
“Rooks’ decision to recite scripture to solemnize the proceedings and fortify herself to perform her official duties at the beginning of her Board comments fits comfortably within this tradition,” her suit states.
District spokeswoman Erin Dunsey said the district has not been officially served the lawsuit and did not address Rooks’s allegations but said that “in Peoria Unified, we are committed to working with all Governing Board members to support the teaching and learning for our 36,000 students.”
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Rooks, in a news release from the First Liberty Institute — a legal nonprofit dedicated to “defending religious liberty for all Americans” — that’s representing her, said that she finds “quoting scripture out loud to be encouraging to myself and to many in attendance.”
The mother of four Peoria students was elected to the School Board in November and began serving her term in January. She immediately started reading bits of scripture to open her “board comments” — when members give a summary of official duties, such as school tours, that they’ve carried out since the previous meeting.
At her first meeting on Jan. 12, Rooks thanked supporters who helped her get elected and recited Joshua 1:9: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
On Feb. 9, she started her board comments with Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you.”
After that meeting, the legal director for Secular AZ, a nonprofit that aims “to ensure a secular state government,” allegedly submitted a complaint to the board, asserting that Rooks’s recitation of scripture amounted to “unconstitutional proselytizing.”
In a statement last week, Secular AZ executive director Jeanne Casteen described Rooks’s lawsuit as “intimidation of the Board, a usurpation of legitimate authority.”
“Rooks’ lawsuit is an attempt to force her religion onto children against the wishes of their parents,” Casteen wrote. “Religion should be taught at home by the parents, not at a public-school board meeting by an unrelated person.”
Upon receiving Secular AZ’s complaint earlier this year, the board’s legal counsel allegedly wrote an email to each board member, stating that they couldn’t pray or read Bible verses during meetings because doing so violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause. And, the lawyer added, addressing anything other than “a brief summary of current events as it relates to service as a board member, such as school visits, recognizing students, staff, etc.” violated state laws designed to ensure government transparency, the suit states.
Rooks kept reciting scripture. During the Feb. 23 board meeting, she read Proverbs 22:6, according to her suit. At the one on April 13, she recited Psalm 16:8. Two weeks later, she chose Psalm 16:1. On May 11, she paraphrased 1 John 4:4, and on May 22, she read 1 Corinthians 2:5.
“That your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God,” she told the crowd.
On May 25, a staff attorney from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that describes itself “as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church,” sent a letter to the School Board complaining about Rooks “using her position on the board to foist her personal religious beliefs upon district parents and community members,” according to the suit.
The foundation allegedly pushed the board to take whatever action necessary to make sure Rooks and other members respected the constitutional rights of Peoria residents, the suit states. It allegedly warned that not doing so would open the district to costly lawsuits.
At the board’s June 8 meeting, Rooks recited another Bible verse. During the School Board meeting on July 13, she announced that she would stop quoting the Bible, citing months of what she described as pressure from outside “activist groups” and the board itself. But she implied that she would be taking legal action.
Two months later, she filed her lawsuit.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/06/arizona-school-board-bible-verses-lawsuit/