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The Tennessee county that grappled with religion in the classroom when it was the site of the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925 was ordered Friday to stop teaching Bible classes in its elementary schools.
The classes, offered in Rhea County for 51 years, violate the constitutional separation of church and state, U.S. District Judge Allan Edgar ruled. An appeal is planned.
Parental consent was not required for the weekly classes. Students who objected could participate in other activities. A couple had sued over the classes, taught by students from Bryan College, a Christian college in Dayton.
Dayton is where William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow squared off in court during the prosecution of schoolteacher John T. Scopes for teaching evolution.
