GAINESVILLE — Hall County School System Superintendent Will Schofield announced Monday morning that a lawsuit filed against the school system by the Washington-based American Humanist Association (AHA) over prayer in the county school system has been dismissed.
The AHA had claimed the school violated the constitutional separation of church and state when football coaches participated in prayer with student players, specifically at Chestatee High School (CHS).
Along with implicating the school district, the AHA - on behalf of three anonymous complainants - had charged Schofield and CHS Principal Suzanne Jarrard in the suit.
Schofield said in a phone interview that he felt the school district and the AHA found some common ground during discussions surrounding the lawsuit.
"As is often the case, when we sat down and asked what it is that everybody was after, we came to some sort of common ground, and the common ground was certainly that our employees and the students in our schools deserve to know what their rights and responsibilities are when it comes to these issues of separation of church and state," said Schofield.
"Our district upholds the Constitution of the United States, but we certainly can support the idea of doing our dead-level best to ensure that our folks know what their rights are."
The school district admitted to no wrong-doing, but Schofield said Hall County teachers, coaches and staff will get some additional training at the onset of the school year.
"You get 3,400 employees, you get 28,000 students and to say that nobody ever makes a mistake would be less than genuine," said Schofield. "We'll do our best to ensure that every year our people understand where the lines are when it comes to again to rights and responsibilities on these issues of church and state."
Schofield said was surprised to discover during the almost year-long process that many members of the general public don't understand the mechanics of separation of church and state.
"We've put a link on our web site, which I believe is one of the most common sense synopses of what's out there on the issues of church and state that came out of the Bush Administration in 2003," said Schofield. "
READ: Stipulation of Dismissal
READ: Lawsuit Dismissal Statement from Hall County School District
This story will be updated.
Reaction from the AHA can be found in a separate AccessWDUN story.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/7/324215/hall-co-school-district-aha-come-to-terms-over-school-prayer-lawsuit