When my children were going to elementary school, some 20 to 25 years ago, my then wife signed them up for a religious education "release time" program every Wednesday for one hour. The class was held in the multi-purpose room.

I did not agree with my kid's enrollment, but I reluctantly went along with my wife's decision. I did, however, protest (to the superintendent)the location of the class, and they later moved it to a nearby church. The children had to walk two blocks, crossing a busy highway with no crossing guard to get there. I should have raised cane, but didn't.

Well, I just read where at a nearby school a complaint was filed with the ACLU on behalf of a mother and her 8-year-old son asking a judge to shut down the program and bar the school district from providing it with utilities or any other support.

A 1952 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows students to receive R.E. during school hours but not on school property (hence my protest). Evidently, this school district being sued permits the program to meet in a mobile trailer nearby, using school utilities.

The R.E. class is voluntary, but if this community is anything like the one I live in, only a fool would not participate. Enrollment is automatic--100%. The woman who's suing remains anonymous. She does not want her son, or herself, to be subjected to vituperative hate. That's why I went along with the crowd 25 years ago.

The Supreme Court decision was made during the anti-communist, anti-atheist period. 1952 was the year "under God" was inserted in the Pledge of Allegience. It's time to remove the words and forbid any public school from holding "volunteer" religious education programs. The Constitution stills says church and state are to be separate.