Connellsville School Returning 10 Commandments Cited By Group

PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - A Pennsylvania school district is returning a Ten Commandments monument to the fraternal organization that donated it in the 1950s after a federal judge ruled last month that it violates the First Amendment.

Senior U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry ruled the monument outside Connellsville Area Junior High School violated the amendment, which has been interpreted as barring government from endorsing a particular religion.

But McVerry stopped short of making the school district remove it, because the family who sued, with help from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has moved away and could no longer object to it.

The school board voted Wednesday to return the monument to the Fraternal Order of Eagles because the district's solicitor says nothing would stop another student from suing to remove the monument again.

The four-and-a-half-foot monument has been on school property for more than 50 years, and most recently, it's been tightly sealed to prevent people from removing plywood and other coverings.

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