Ft. Worth Star-Telegram - TX School Officials Regret That Decision Pulling National Motto From Yearbook Upsets Parents & Students

May 23, 2006

By JESSAMY BROWN
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

KELLER -- Keller school district officials say they regret that hundreds of people are upset by a decision to omit the words "In God We Trust" from a nickel on the front of the 2005-06 Liberty Elementary School yearbook.

District officials said Monday that they have received hundreds of complaints as well as calls from national news organizations.

Liberty Principal Janet Travis and the campus PTA board chose not to include the phrase on the nickel's image because it "might create an issue with people of several religious faiths," Superintendent James Veitenheimer wrote Sunday in a mass e-mail to parents.

Instead, a sticker was included for families that wanted to add the phrase.

"I would like to express our regrets for any pain that this decision may have caused our families. It is always easy to look back on decisions and agree that a different decision could have been made," Travis and PTA board President Tom Gardner wrote in a letter sent home Monday with students at the Colleyville school. "Principals often have to make tough choices regarding issues that will fall short of pleasing all the parties involved," the letter said. "Please know that we meant no disrespect to any faith. Quite the opposite, we were hoping to ensure that all of our students, no matter their faith, were pleased with the yearbook."

Travis did not respond to a Star-Telegram request for an interview Monday.

Some people have said they were offended by the decision. They said it was an example of a culture removing Christian references from all public places.

Officials chose an image of an enlarged nickel for the yearbook cover because this is Liberty Elementary's first year and because the nickel's new design includes the word "Liberty."

The yearbook, which was given to students Thursday afternoon, has been discussed on talk shows nationwide, Keller district spokesman Jason Meyer said.

The district received about 300 e-mails by Monday afternoon from people in the district and across the country, Meyer said.

Veitenheimer e-mailed 13,000 parents Sunday to explain the district's decision. "Our principals often find themselves on the front lines of issues regarding the separation of church and state," he wrote. "In most of these cases, school administrators find themselves making decisions that are not going to please all parties involved."

A Dallas lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union said last week that the district made the right decision. But Frank Manion, senior lawyer with the American Center for Law and Justice in Washington, which was founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, disagreed.

"I understand completely that there are areas of this that are nebulous. This isn't one of them," he said. "It's one thing to put things on coins and books. It's another to coerce people into believing in religion. This doesn't do that."