Last year the Marathon School District transported the Amish school children on a separate bus to their Amish schools.
For the 2011-2012 school year the Board of Education decided to discontinue this service and require the Amish children to travel on regular schoolbuses.
This has clearly upset our Amish community. The Amish Mennonites aim to separate themselves from the outside world based on interpretations of biblical teaching in the Bible.
The Amish are opposed to having their children mingling with Non-Amish children on regular bus runs because their children will without a doubt learn words, expressions and behavior the Amish consider undesirable and against the tenets of their faith.
Is it possible that the taxpayers in the Marathon School District will have to incur the cost of legal proceedings in the future?
If several school districts around the state provide separate transportation for religious denominations and Marathon does not - could that be construed as discrimination?
I called Mr Wilcox at the Whitney Point School District Transportation Department.
He informed me that W.P. sends out a separate bus to transport the Baptist students who attend the Baptist School in Whitney Point.
The students who attend Marathon Christian Academy are transported on regular bus runs and then transferred to a bus to be taken to Marathon, NY.
When I worked for Laidlaw (now First Student) in Binghamton in 1998 the Jewish students were transported on a separate bus.
George VanderWoude
Links:
Board of Education Meetings
Whitney Point School District Transportation Department
