Settlement Reached In Long-Running Santa Rosa Florida School Consent Decree Challenge

A settlement agreement was reached today in the long-running litigation challenging the consent decree that the Santa Rosa County (Florida) School District agreed to in litigation against it challenging religious practices in the schools. (See prior postings 1 and 2)  A Settlement Agreement, Waiver and Release (full text) along with a proposed modified consent decree (full text with changes marked) were filed with the court today in Allen v. School Board for Santa Rosa County, Florida, (ND FL, filed 7/1/2011). The numerous changes clarify, and in some cases narrow, the scope of the consent decree. For example, the consent decree contains several provisions barring prayer by school officials. The modified decree makes it clear that "'Prayer' does not include customary, polite expressions and greetings, including 'God Bless You' or 'Thank Heavens,' or a student’s religious expression responsive to a legitimate academic class assignment."

The agreement also provides for the school board to pay attorneys' fees and costs totally $265,000, mostly to Liberty Counsel which represented plaintiffs in the case. The ACLU waived its claim for attorneys fees against the school board.  The settlement still must be approved by the court.

In press releases, each side has characterized the settlement agreement rather differently. The ACLU said that the changes merely "reinforce and clarify the basic premise of the original Consent Decree – that official, government sanctioned religious activities are prohibited under the Constitution while individual religious expressions are protected by the Constitution."  Sharply criticizing the challenge to the original consent decree that was brought by Liberty Counsel, an ACLU attorney said:

They came in after the fact, stirred up some controversy, raised some money on this invented issue, and will leave town likely with $265,000 in taxpayer money that would be better spent on the students in our community.

Liberty Counsel, on the other hand said:

on the eve of Independence Day, Liberty Counsel has restored freedom to the Santa Rosa County, Florida, School District teachers, staff, students, and members of the community.... The Consent Decree that led to criminal indictments against school employees for prayer and banned "God Bless" in Santa Rosa County schools will now be gutted and revised. The amended Consent Decree will restore dozens of constitutional religious freedoms that were previously denied.