School Board Successfully Defends Against Claim It Promoted Baptist Doctrines

In Marsh v. School Board of Marion Community Unit School, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59552 (SD IL, Aug. 23, 2006), an elementary school student and her father sued a school board in Marion, Illinois and its superintendent alleging that the superintendent, who was also a church deacon, was using the public schools to indoctrinate students with teachings of the Baptist faith. Apparently plaintiff had at one time belonged to a Baptist church but had been "kicked out" of it. The court rejected on various grounds Establishment Clause challenges based on distribution of flyers about Baptist youth programs, alleged discriminatory hiring practices, school assemblies featuring a minister as a speaker on secular topics, distribution during school time of tickets for a pizza party with religious content, alleged religious content in the school's curriculum, and religious content in a summer theater program and in a teaching institute. Among the grounds for dismissal were mootness, lack of standing, and lack of evidence to support some of the constitutional claims. Documents presented in support of plaintiff’s unsuccessful motion for summary judgment included a letter that plaintiff had fished from defendant's trash dumpster.