BY KARISSA MILLER
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education on Monday declined to support an effort by board member Brian Sloan to display a poster that included the Ten Commandments in all district schools.
School board member Brian Sloan unveiled the “Founding Documents” poster, which also included the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution, last week.
During Monday’s board meeting, Sloan began by saying he was going to take his time and weigh his words carefully.
“I know this is a hot topic,” he said. “I was planning on postponing the vote this afternoon on the display behind me. I had a lot of comments from board members and from the public.”
Sloan explained that he wanted to make the Constitution in the poster “a lot easier to read” and “more legible,” but he couldn’t find the right image.
As a result, he changed the plan to “making the Ten Commandments less legible so they would be the same.”
“I don’t think I’ll make anyone happy,” he added. “I have a lot of time and money invested in this.”
Sloan said he wanted to proceed with the vote, but would make changes to the poster if the board approved it Monday night.
“Unless there have been some decisions made behind closed doors, it should pass 5 to 2,” Sloan said, basing his prediction on feedback he said he received from board members at the Committee of the Whole meeting on October 7.
A motion to vote on the poster failed to get a second by another board member.
Board member Mike Kubiniec then made a motion to postpone the vote until November, which received a second.
However, Chairman Bill Howell explained that if the board voted against the motion to postpone the vote on the poster that the motion would fail and it would not be brought up again as a voting item.
Board member Doug Knight, who opposed displaying the poster, said that he took an oath to uphold the law.
“This is a legal question here to me. It’s not a question of religion,” Knight said.
In the poster’s current form, he said, displaying it in a public school would violate federal law based on previous court cases.
Knight said that he had received emails from a national organization about challenging the legality of displaying Sloan’s Founding Documents poster in district schools.
“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.”
Knight also reminded the board that they were harshly criticized by the public for the cost of the new high school, which some dubbed “The Taj Mahal.”
“This is the legal Taj Mahal, in my opinion,” Knight said. “It goes against federal law, and I’m not going to knowingly break the law.”
Board member Anita Kurn asked the board to give Sloan more time to work on the poster and meet the legal criteria needed for it to be displayed in schools.
Vice Chairman Charles Kelly said he didn’t need more time to consider the legality of the poster.
“That question has already been taken to the Supreme Court. We have been told categorically you are fine with the state, but you will lose on the federal level. That’s money I don’t have,” he said.
Kelly said that he believes in the Ten Commandments, but the law right is clear when it comes to displaying them in public schools.
The motion to postpone a vote on the Founding Documents poster failed by a vote of 4 to 3. Those opposed were Abby Trent, Kelly, Howell and Knight. Those in favor of postponing the vote were Kurn, Sloan and Kubiniec.
Parent Richard Coleman spoke in favor of displaying the Founding Documents poster during the public comment period.
“One of the biggest arguments I get into all the time is was this country founded on Christianity — absolutely, it was,” he said.
“That display right there isn’t pushing Christianity. That display right there is showing you the moral foundation of which this country was built on. Why were those documents written that way? Why were they put together like that?” he asked.
Displaying the poster is not about pushing religion, it’s “about putting up a display that shows why the other two documents were written,” Coleman added.
