School District Removes Ten Commandments Monument After Threat

A Pennsylvania school district is agreeing to remove a Ten Commandments monument in order to settle a federal lawsuit.

The New Kensington-Arnold school district will remove the 6-foot-high monument that sits outside of a high school and agreed to pay $164,000 in legal fees.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is behind the lawsuit. 

"We're very glad it's over with, but honestly, it shouldn't have been fought in the first place," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the foundation.

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

The girl walked by the monument as she attended recreational events or dropped her sister off at Valley High School. 

The school district was granted a favorable decision in 2015 by a federal judge who said the girl had minimal contact with the monument because she was not a student at the school.

However, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision in August. 

"A community member like Schaub may establish standing by showing direct, unwelcome contact with the allegedly offending object or event, regardless of whether such contact is infrequent or she does not alter her behavior to avoid it," the 3rd Circuit panel wrote.

Superintendent John Pallone signed the settlement. He and the district lawyer are not commenting on the decision.