A Marion woman is suing the Crittenden County Board of Education claiming a teacher forced their religion upon her third-grade son.
Jennifer Wood filed the lawsuit in the Western District of U.S. District Court in Paducah on July 1. She names the school district and Crittenden County Elementary Assistant Principal Laurie Holcomb in the civil action.
Wood says she has four children in the Crittenden County School System, including two in elementary school. She also claims she is non-religious and intends to raise her children without religion.
According to the lawsuit, which represents only one side of the issue, Wood said her son came home from school on several occasions in the spring asking questions about church and religion. The mother said when she began to ask questions, her child said his teacher was the source of the comments.
Wood, who is employed by the Audubon Early Head Start and Preschool Program in Crittenden County, called the school’s principal, who she claims told Wood they would investigate.
One day later, Wood said Assistant Principal Holcomb told her in a phone conversation the school would take no action regarding the matter. The lawsuit described the religious comments made by the teacher concerning the definition of the word alter, which the teacher defined as “when you go to church and kneel down and ask God to save you.”
Holcomb told Wood the teacher’s lesson was about homophones and the teacher’s words were perfectly appropriate. Wood countered that the words ‘alter’ and ‘altar’ are not homophones.
Wood claims in the lawsuit that a short time later, her bosses called her to a meeting and told her the school district preschool director had called and demanded they take action against Wood and says Holcomb directed that Wood be punished professionally for opposing her permission for a teacher to use religious imagery in a public school classroom.
Wood went on to say the conduct of the board of education and Holcomb was based on their objection to the content of Wood’s speech regarding the propriety of religious discussion in a public school classroom and her choice to raise her children without religion.
Wood is seeking damages for severe emotional distress, emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, and other non-pecuniary losses to be determined at trial.
The teacher who made the religious comments was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
