GILES COUNTY, Va. (WTVR) – For more than a year, it has been at the center of a public legal battle that made national headlines, and sparked debate about the separation of church and state.
The Giles County School Board has decided to give up its fight to post the Ten Commandments inside its schools.
At a meeting Thursday morning, the board voted unanimously to accept a resolution to post only what it considers to be historical documents.
In fact, the board agreed to post nine specific historical documents.
Those include the Star Spangled banner, the Bill of Rights, Lady Justice, the Virginia Statute of Religious freedom, the Mayflower Compact, the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and that all important page 74 from the Giles County History textbook, called the Roots of Democracy. That display does show two tablets with symbols, but nothing in English.
The Board said it did not cave into political correctness pressure from the ACLU, which demanded the Ten Commandments display come down.
"Is it wrong to say the Giles County School Board caved in to the ACLU? I think that's wrong because we do still have the Ten Commandments up," said Giles County School Board Chairman J. B. Buckland, who caught what he said and clarified. "… Not the Ten Commandments as such. We do have the rock up."
If the federal judge accepts the board's recommendation, several schools in Giles County could get the historical document displays.
