School sued for ‘trashing’ Bibles

By Jon Dougherty

Officials at the

Lynn Lucas Middle School
in Willis, Texas, have been served with a lawsuit filed on behalf of three students who allege that one teacher forbade two teens from carrying their Bibles in school while another prohibited a student from using a book cover displaying the Ten Commandments.

The federal lawsuit, filed in Houston and served on school officials Monday, alleges that the school violated four provisions of the U.S. Constitution, three in the Texas State Constitution and two state laws.

Lynn Lucas Middle School in Willis, Texas

The suit alleges that teacher Sara Flottman, on seeing two teenage sisters carrying Bibles to a Saturday morning make-up class March 11, led both of them to the principal’s office, threw the Bibles into the trash and declared, “We don’t allow this garbage here.”

“We arrived at school and she was checking on us,” said Angela Harbison, 15. She and her sister, 13-year-old Amber Harbison, are two of three plaintiffs named in the suit.

After seizing Angela’s Bible, Flottman “waved (my) Bible in Amber’s face and said, ‘Do you have one of these?'” Angela said.

Angela said another teacher was in charge when she and her sister brought Bibles to previous Saturday classes. March 11 was the first day Flottman had handled the class when the girls were present, said the teens.

“My daughters called me, were hysterical, and said, `Mama, they took our Bibles and called them garbage and threw them in the garbage and then threatened to call Child Protective Services,'” Deborah Bedenbender, 37, a Willis homemaker, said Tuesday. Her children are from a previous marriage; her current husband, Jody Bedenbender, 50, has joined her and the teens in the suit.

Mrs. Bedenbender said she calmed her daughters and then asked to speak with Flottman. According to the suit, an angry exchange followed, during which Flottmann allegedly threatened to have the teens removed by Child Protective Services if their mother failed to come and get them within a half hour.

Bedenbender said she went to pick them up, retrieved the Bibles from the trash and, within a week, withdrew them from the school district. Three others of her nine children are still attending the district, while Angela and Amber are being home-schooled at present.

Meanwhile, the suit also alleges that a teacher required Jeremy Pasket, 13, to remove a Ten Commandments book cover from a book.

Jeremy, the suit alleges, was also carrying a Bible and was told by a teacher identified only as “Mrs. Billingsly” to put it away during free reading time and not to bring it back to school.

The boy and his father, Robert Pasket, a welder from Willis, joined the Bedenbenders in the lawsuit. An earlier Houston Chronicle report noted that neither plaintiff family could be reached for comment.

Specifically, the suit accuses the school district of violating the pupils’ constitutional right to free speech and of violating the Constitution’s establishment clause, which prohibits excessive government entanglement with religion. School officials are also accused of violating the children’s right to free exercise of religion and denying them equal protection under the Constitution.

Mathew Staver, a lawyer whose

Liberty Counsel
legal defense organization was founded by

Rev. Jerry Falwell,
filed the lawsuit May 19 on behalf of the three pupils and their parents. Since federal courts may also hear cases alleging violations of state laws if they are accompanied by federal violations, explains Staver, the suit alleges violation of freedom of speech, free exercise of religion and the right to equal protection under the Texas Constitution.

The district also violated state laws on parental rights and exercise of religion, the lawsuit alleges. The district has 20 days to respond to the suit, said Staver.

“Students have a constitutional right to bring religious literature to school and read this literature during their free time,” said Staver. “Students also have the right to put a religious book cover on their own books.”

“We would like the school’s cooperation to make sure this wouldn’t happen again,” he said. “If they can’t give us some assurances, we’re going to ask the court.” He added that he hoped his clients and the school district could reach an agreement that would make it possible for the Bedenbender’s to re-enroll Amber and Angela.

“Schools are not totalitarian regimes and students are not robots,” said a Liberty Counsel press release. “Schools are not religion-free zones.”

WorldNetDaily made repeated attempts to reach officials at Lynn Lucas Middle School, but spokesperson Susan Parker told WND the school “couldn’t comment” on the case.

Named as defendants are the school district, the school board, Superintendent Kay Karr, Lynn Lucas Middle School Principal Rayford McIlhaney, Vice Principals Keith Wienecke and Rhonda Hill, and Flottman.


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Jon Dougherty

Jon E. Dougherty is a Missouri-based political science major, author, writer and columnist. Follow him on Twitter. Read more of Jon Dougherty's articles here.