Pennsylvania School Settles Lawsuit With Atheist Group

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania school district is agreeing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from outside a high school and pay $164,000 in legal fees to settle a federal lawsuit.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation says it received a signed settlement Thursday from the New Kensington-Arnold School District.

Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor says her group is glad the dispute is over, but she thinks it shouldn’t have been a fight at all.

The challenge to the 6-foot-high monument was filed by a student and her atheist mother in 2012.

The district’s lawyer isn’t commenting, and Superintendent John Pallone didn’t return messages. Pallone signed the settlement agreement last week.

The deal requires the monument to be removed within 30 days. Valley High School is about 20 miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh.

The FFRF is the group which sent Rienzi city leaders a letter asking them to remove the Christian Flag from a Veterans memorial on city property or face legal action