Motto posters going up in schools
BY JASON WERMERS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER – Jul 15, 2002
The following is an article that appeared in the July 15, 2002 Richmond Times-Dispatch, explaining the role Family Policy Network played in passing Virginia legislation to require posting the National Motto, “In God We Trust” in all public schools.
When public school students in Virginia return to their studies in September, they will find a new poster on the wall.
It will declare, “In God We Trust.”
That’s the national motto, established by Congress in 1956; a state law that took effect July 1 requires all public schools to post it.
Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah are the only other states with such laws. South Carolina’s law, passed this year, further requires the motto to be displayed in every classroom.
The Family Policy Network, a nonprofit Christian organization based in Bedford County, recently mailed 3,200 posters with the motto superimposed over the image of a waving American flag. Most school divisions received the posters in time for the Fourth of July.
In late June, three volunteers from the organization spent 12 hours over 2½ days stuffing cardboard tubes with 11- by- 14-inch posters bearing the motto. They also sent letters to every school superintendent in the state informing them the posters were gifts, with no strings attached.
Local school divisions are in various stages of complying with the law. The state Department of Education has recommended that the motto be posted in time for schools’ fall opening.
Some schools started displaying the motto even before the law was passed. For example, Dinwiddie County hung 18 framed posters in its schools and central administrative offices in November. Believers Christian Fellowship in the Ford section of Dinwiddie donated the posters.
Chesterfield County paid $59 for 100 posters after the School Board voted in December to encourage the display of the motto. A few schools did hang the posters, but many more now will have to.
“People are starving for institutions that represent integrity and care for their children,” board Chairman James R. Schroeder said. “They want a faith environment. It demonstrates that we care about you.”
In Hanover County, Black Creek Baptist Church of Mechanicsville has donated framing for “In God We Trust” posters. Pastor David Taylor said the church also paid slightly more than $1,000 for about 700 more posters in case teachers want to post the motto in their classrooms.
Taylor said two of the framed posters already have been put up, one each in the central administrative offices and in Battlefield Park Elementary.
A women’s prayer group approached Battlefield Park Principal Dorsey G. Smith III last fall. Smith agreed to post the motto if the church would provide it.
When Superintendent Stewart D. Roberson saw the framed poster, he requested copies for all the county schools. Taylor said the church was able to get posters from the American Family Association.
“I think it’s a good thing, definitely,” Taylor said of posting the motto in schools. “If it was important enough for Congress to legislate in 1956, it’s important enough for our children to be exposed to it in the schools.”
Richmond and Henrico County schools are still deciding how to display the motto, but officials from both divisions say they will have the posters up in time for the start of school in September.
Family Policy Network President Joe Glover said his group had pushed for a law requiring the posting of the motto since Mississippi became the first state to pass a similar measure in 2000. Last year, the bill cleared the House of Delegates but died in the Senate. This year, both chambers of the Republican-dominated General Assembly approved the measure, but Glover said his group did not expect Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner to sign it into law.
Warner had expressed concerns children could be “coerced to help pay for the school’s sign.”
“The day the governor had to make the decision, I wrote him and told him we had secured an anonymous donor to pay for the posters, and that we will pay for and orchestrate their distribution to every school,” Glover said. “We wanted to remove any excuse from the governor not to sign it.”
The day Warner signed the bill into law he said, “I have received assurances from the patrons of this legislation that private donors are available to fund appropriate signs for this purpose.”
Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said his organization will closely watch how students react to the posters.
“Will we start to receive calls from students or parents indicating that children going to public schools are interpreting ‘In God We Trust’ posters to mean the school is in some way indicating they ought to be trusting in God?” Willis said. “Are students confused by it, maybe even students who are in minority religions, when they walk into school and believe the school is sending a message their religion is secondary?”
If the answers to such questions is yes, the ACLU could challenge the law, he said.
Even though Schroeder, the Chesterfield School Board chairman, supports the voluntary posting of the motto, the state law gives him pause.
“Any time you try to force things on people, I think you can end up creating adversarial situations,” he said. “What I like to see is the local communities gathering around and saying, ‘How do we create the healthiest environment for our schools?’”
Contact Jason Wermers at (804) 649-6831 or [email protected]