PRINCETON, W.Va. — A West Virginia school district is fighting back against the claim that a Bible study class offered in some public schools violates the First Amendment.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit last month against the Mercer County, West Virginia Board of Education, Mercer County Schools and Superintendent Dr. Deborah Akers, seeking to end the county’s Bible In The Schools programs, arguing that the program endorses one religion and violates the consciences of nonreligious and non-Christian parents and students.

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — An advocacy organization is seeking to end Bible study classes in some West Virginia schools, claiming they violate the First Amendment.

O’Melveny & Myers LLP will be representing the county’s school system, alongside First Liberty Institute, the largest nonprofit law firm in the nation dedicated exclusively to “protecting religious freedom for all Americans,” according to its website.

O’Melveny & Myers is an international firm and one of the oldest and most prestigious in the nation, according to various websites. However, the firm’s website does not include any reference to involvement in religious liberty lawsuits.

According to the lawsuit, an unnamed parent of a Mercer County kindergarden student, “Jane Doe,” is an atheist and wishes to raise her child, referred to as “Jamie Doe,” without religion.  However, the lawsuit says, the child risks ostracism from other students if she does not participate in the Bible classes.

The lawsuit includes specific references to the Bible class lessons, and calls them “similar to what a child may hear in a church’s Sunday school.”

Classes on the Bible are legal in public schools, but must be taught as a secular course and related to the historical and literary contexts of the book.

“The program endorses one religion, improperly entangles public schools in religious affairs, and violates the personal consciences of nonreligious and non-Christian parents and students,” the lawsuit states.

The Bible in the Schools program has existed for 75 years in the county, and teacher salaries are funded by the nonprofit Bible in the Schools organization.

According to the lawsuit, the program is administered by the Mercer County Board of Education, which “has taken on all responsibilities except financing.”

Students do not have to take the classes and may opt out for other electives if their parents choose to do so, however classes are offered during the school day and the lawsuit says the majority of students participate.

The Bible in the Schools organization has said the program is in compliance with the law, and the cost of the program is about $450,000 a year, which is raised through donations.

The lawsuit asks the court to prohibit the Mercer County Board of Education, Mercer County Schools and Akers from “organizing, administering, or otherwise endorsing bible classes for Mercer County School students.” It also seeks “nominal damages” for the plaintiffs as well as court costs and attorney fees.

The lawsuit says the defendants’ conduct, which has no “legitimate secular purpose,” will cause “a deprivation of constitutional rights in violation of the First And Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

The two firms were voted on unanimously during an executive session Tuesday evening, said Akers.

The paperwork will be filed and the school system will wait for the next step in the legal process, she said.

Boothe writes for the Bluefield, West Virginia Daily Telegraph.