Rocklin vows to keep 'God Bless America'

Rocklin vows to keep \'God Bless America\'
By Erika Chavez and Ryan McCarthy
Bee Staff Writer and Bee Correspondent
(Published Oct. 13, 2001)

Three words on a school marquee helped push Rocklin onto the national stage this week.
\"God Bless America,\" placed on the sign outside Breen Elementary after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, propelled school Principal Terry Thornton onto national television, headlined the Drudge Report on the Internet and spurred a South Carolina congressman\'s legislative effort.

The Rocklin Unified School District\'s decision to keep the message after the American Civil Liberties Union demanded last week that it be removed has prompted a showdown.

The highly charged situation illustrates how in the midst of war, patriotism and unity can be highly personal concepts in a nation with myriad ethnicities and religions.

Since the district\'s refusal, the ACLU has not indicated whether it intends to pursue the matter.

The school district intends to stand its ground, citing a California Supreme Court decision stating that \"God Bless America\" is a traditional, nonreligious, patriotic phrase.

\"It\'s pure patriotism,\" district trustee Mark Klang said of the sign. \"We\'re not going to take it down.\" Trustees are scheduled Wednesday to consider a resolution encouraging all their schools to display similar messages.

The ACLU contends in an Oct. 3 letter to the district, however, that it is not constitutional for the school to post the words \"God Bless America\" on a school marquee, and that the words send \"a hurtful, divisive message\" to a group of \"religiously pluralistic\" students.

\"They picked the wrong issue, they picked the wrong time and they picked the wrong community,\" said Mark Forbes, the Rocklin school board president.

Breen Elementary was not alone in its patriotic sentiment. Countless schools nationwide put \"God Bless America\" on marquees or posters after the attacks.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in Washington, D.C., received complaints about schools in Chicago and Tucson, said Barry Lynn, the group\'s executive director.

But in the other cases, the signs came down because they were always intended to be temporary and \"cooler heads prevailed,\" said Lynn, also a minister with the United Church of Christ.

\"This should not be an issue that gets litigated in federal courts for the next five years,\" Lynn said. \"This should be resolved not in a court but through common sense and listening to the community.\"

In Rocklin, a mostly white Placer County town of 36,300 residents, the community seems to be firmly behind the school. The city placed a \"God Bless America\" message Thursday on a sign at the Sunset Center after council members sought a show of support for the school.

\"I\'m really pulling for them. It\'s a show of patriotism,\" said Jackie Leonard, a Rocklin resident. \"It\'s sad that one person can cause such a strain in the community. It\'s sad that it\'s caused such a big battle.\"

The current climate must be taken into account when analyzing seemingly religious messages on school marquees, said Charles Haynes, a senior scholar with the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va.

Breen Elementary\'s decision to put the phrase on the marquee is technically a violation of the First Amendment because it gives the appearance that the school is endorsing religion, Haynes said.

But circumstances complicate the issue.

\"If it is a temporary expression, done in a moment of national crisis, and part of a patriotic outpouring that we see, then we should all just accept it and go on,\" Haynes said.

If the school insists on keeping the slogan on the marquee or the district takes an official stand supporting the matter, that does invite a lawsuit, Haynes said.

If the matter does end up in court, how will a judge rule?

That\'s entirely unknown, Haynes said, as there\'s little precedent. While courts have been reluctant to disturb references to God in various national documents and patriotic exercises such as the Pledge of Allegiance, public schools are a different matter, and courts tend to rule more strictly when they are involved.

\"One judge might say, \'We\'re not going to bother, this is not a violation of the First Amendment.\' But another judge might say, \'The First Amendment doesn\'t go away in a time of crisis, this looks like a school is endorsing religion, and I\'m going to strike it down,\' \" Haynes said.

The district remains undaunted. Besides the proposed resolution encouraging schools to post patriotic messages, trustee Klang said he\'ll also ask that the Breen marquee message -- which is typically changed each month -- remain until Jan. 1.

Thornton, the Breen principal, appeared Wednesday night on the \"O\'Reilly Factor\" on Fox News Channel. On Friday, aides to Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., notified Thornton that the lawmaker will back a resolution to let public schools post \"God Bless America.\"

Since seeking the message\'s removal, the ACLU of Northern California has taken a low profile. It didn\'t return calls Friday; the national headquarters in New York declined comment.

A complaint from a Breen Elementary parent spurred the ACLU request.

In an Oct. 3 letter to the school, the parent said she is keeping her daughter out while the message stays because it creates an \"outsider feeling,\" and God and patriotism are two different matters.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative Virgina-based public-interest law firm dealing with constitutional issues, has offered to assist the school district.

The controversy comes as no surprise to historians, Haynes said. America has a pattern of turning to religion or religious expression in times of crisis.

\"In God We Trust\" didn\'t find its way onto currency until the waning days of the Civil War. At the same time, there was a failed attempt to put Jesus Christ\'s name into the preamble of the Constitution.

The words \"under God\" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 at the height of the Cold War.

The revival of religious sentiment is causing hatred and division, said Ellen Johnson, president of the New Jersey-based American Atheists.

\"When the public schools become endorsers of religion, the two become inextricably entwined, and those people who object to religion then have their patriotism questioned,\" Johnson said. \"I am tired of having my patriotism questioned and seeing this climate of hatred that is the result. It\'s not good for America.\"



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The Bee\'s Erika Chavez can be reached at (916) 321-1083 or echavez [at] sacbee.com.

Bee Staff Writer Jennifer K. Morita contributed to this report.