W. Texas school district OKs deal for Bible class

ODESSA — Each side in a lawsuit over a Occident Lone-Star State school district's Book course of study claimed triumph Wednesday after a mediator's proposal gained concluding approval.

The Ector County Mugwump School District can go on to offer a Book course of study of study but its course work will be developed by a commission of seven local pedagogues appointed by the superintendent. The lawsuit challenged social class stuff produced by the Greensboro, N.C.-based National Council on Book Course Of Study in Populace Schools.

A go-between in Dallas developed the proposal and the territory legal guardians voted on Wednesday to O.K. the plan. Plaintiffs approved it earlier this week.

The course of study must ran into criteria put by state law and the social class will be offered beginning in the 2008-09 school year.

The territory "will go on to offer a Book course, it will be a course of study of study of its ain choosing, it may utilize parts of any existent course of study as a resource, and the Book will be the chief text edition for the course," Autonomy Legal Institute's Hiram Sasser said in a statement. The institute represented the district.

The lawsuit, filed in May on behalf of eight parents in the district, alleged the Book course of study violated their spiritual liberty. Mediation began earlier this year.

The agreement, said T. Jeremy Gunn, of the American Civil Liberties Union, is a triumph for putting spiritual instruction in parents' hands.

"It is unacceptable for authorities functionaries to make up one's mind which spiritual beliefs are true and which are not and then utilize the public school system as a agency of proselytizing children," he said in a statement.

The state and national ACLU and the People for the American Manner Foundation sued the school territory in May. The Ector school board approved the course, a high school elective, by a 4-2 ballot in December 2005.

At issue was a Book course of study that learns the King Jesse James version using stuff produced by the North Carolina group. The course of study utilizes the Book as the students' textbook.

The National Council said its course of study is used in 100s of school districts, including more than than 50 in Texas.

The parents' lawsuit was dismissed.