andyt andyt:
Risk is something school administrators are not supposed to take. Also if they have legal insurance, the insurer may make them settle. Maybe this atheist group has a pretty good chance of winning, and that went into the decision to not fight it. And, as I say, they already have a secular toy drive, probably just realized it's not worth the fight.
Also, cost awards aren't automatic. In Canada it is much harder to be awarded costs if you win, the US easier. But you rarely get all your costs back.
I disagree. Back in the late 1990's I was involved with a conservative advocacy group and one of the challenges we took on involved the Elk Grove Unified School District in California. For some never-revealed reason a number of suburban school districts had made a pornographic book required reading for freshman (grade nine) high school students.
In case anyone thinks I'm being 'alarmist' about calling 'The Wantons' pornographic I'll invite you to look at it for yourself:
http://books.google.com/books/about/The ... aXCkhsv_oCIn any case, the school districts were willing to go to the mattresses to legally defend their teaching of this book until the State Attorney General (Dan Lundgren) got involved and promised felony charges against any adults who persisted in exposing minors to this material.
They took a huge risk and the ensuing lawsuits cost them millions to resolve. This case (in part) also helped lay the groundwork for the charter school movement in California so parents could get back more control of their children's education from the educrats who think that 14 year old kids should be made to learn about incestuous rape, heroin use, and etc.