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POSTER PLAN PASSES, 4-1

Local high schools to hang revised design next year

BY TARA MCLAUGHLIN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: tmclaughlin@bakersfield.com | Monday, Nov 5 2007 11:25 PM

Last Updated: Tuesday, Nov 6 2007 1:57 PM

After a seemingly contradictory and confounding string of motions and amendments, the Kern High School District board agreed to put the phrase "In God We Trust" in every Kern High School District classroom.

Four members of the five-man board agreed to an amended version of trustee Chad Vegas' proposal to hang posters of the national motto with founding documents in all KHSD classrooms using a locally designed format. Board President Bob Hampton, who has said that spirituality should remain in the home and church and out of the public education system, opposed the measure.

Trustee Bryan Batey introduced a new poster, created by a local graphic artist, featuring the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and both national mottos.

"Our motion tonight was to make sure we could have a civic education document that would be relevant, but also provide the history of the original motto, 'E Pluribus Unum,' and also our current motto, 'In God We Trust,' and to put those both into historical context," said Batey, who had been seen as the swing vote.

Batey first suggested an amendment that would not have mandated the display in every classroom, but this was shot down by other members. He then offered the second amendment. He said he was willing to discard the voluntary nature of the amendment in order to pass the vote.

Joel Heinrichs, who had stood against Vegas' original proposal, said he liked Batey's poster and the amendment was a "reasonable response" to Vegas' original policy.

Ken Mettler supported the final amendment.

"The point of this was to send a very clear statement to students," Vegas said. "... rights are given to them by God."

City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan approached Vegas with the idea of displaying a poster of the national motto created by a controversial conservative Christian group, American Family Association, in every classroom.

Sullivan had said that her nonprofit group, In God We Trust -- America Inc., would pay for the posters, But with the new policy, the district will no longer need her support.

She said she was happy with Monday night's outcome.

"We need to keep our identity and preserve the values that our country was founded on," she said earlier. "Certainly keeping God in our country is what we need to do. Not religion, but keeping God."

Dozens of citizens spoke on both sides of the issue to the board in front of about 140 people in the board room and an overflow area receiving live feeds of the meeting.

"This is our history," said Weston White, a student pastor in support of posting the motto. "God help us if we rewrite our history."

Speaking in opposition, Gatz Nieblas, a student at Stockdale High School, said that perseverance and hard work were also American values. "The First Amendment explicitly states that the government shall make no law supporting the establishment of a religion," Nieblas said.

Vegas has said his proposal was not intended to indoctrinate the district's tens of thousands of students in Christianity but rather to remind them of the country's history and engender patriotism.

But some high-profile actions hint at a pattern in Vegas' conservative religious influence in the district.

Since his run for the board in 2004, Vegas, now 34 and pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Bakersfield, has shocked some with his comments. Joking with a local radio host just after his election about book burning, and calling opponents to his motto proposal unpatriotic God-haters, forced him to backpedal.

He was critical of the previous board's decision not to censor Toni Morrison's controversial, sexual novel, "The Bluest Eye." He has called evolution nonsense and said he wanted to consider "intelligent design" in science classes. And he successfully changed the names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter breaks.

In other matters, the board voted four to one to approve a policy change introduced by Mettler to eliminate the flag-raising ceremony as a qualifying location for saying the pledge of allegiance. Acceptable options for reciting the pledge include first- or second-period classes or assemblies. Hampton voted against the change.