Unsealed court documents reveal information
The mandatory adoption of four policies without following long-standing district procedure was a major reason Indian River School District’s Board rejected a settlement offer in the Dobrich/Doe prayer suit in February, according to court records released Monday.
Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Company — the board’s insurer — sued the board in April, citing a breach of contract because of that unanimous rejection.
The board and its policy committee — which reviews any proposed policies — were not consulted before the terms of the four policies were negotiated and added to the settlement package with a stipulation that would hamstring future boards, the district’s counterclaim in the insurance suit says. Those policies regarded prayer at commencement and baccalaureate ceremonies, a complaint procedure and a training regimen — all related to issue of religion in the district’s schools.
“The manner in which Insurance Counsel negotiated the Dobrich settlement policies wholly disregarded the interests of the board in favor of the interests of Graphic Arts,” the board’s counterclaim says.
Another stipulation in the settlement would not have allowed future boards to change the “Dobrich policies” unless state or federal laws or decisions mandated that they do so, according to that counterclaim.
“This provision would have unlawfully usurped the authority of this and future school boards,” the counterclaim says.
“Our goal was simply to make sure they didn’t turn around the following week and undo everything we worked hard to achieve after we had released our claims against the district,” said Thomas Allingham, a Wilmington attorney representing the plaintiffs on the original Dobrich/Doe suit.
Other settlement terms deemed unacceptable included refraining from using “Christmas Break” on district calendars and bumping two children of the plaintiffs to the front of the line for admittance into two district arts schools, the counterclaim says.
The Coastal Point reported on April 21 that the settlement would have required removing “Christmas” and “Easter” break from district calendars and that one child would have received direct admittance into the Southern Delaware School of the Arts.
Also, as reported by this paper on June 16, the school board prayer policy would not have been contested with the settlement, the counterclaim re-confirmed.
Jason Gosselin, attorney for the district, said that he has offered another settlement in the Dobrich/Doe case but has heard no formal response. Both he and Allingham refused to comment on the details of that offer.
“If we get a deal, we get a deal,” Allingham said.
In February of 2005, the Dobriches, a Jewish family, and another family that remains anonymous filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the district in federal court, claiming that the district had violated their right to freedom of religion. The Dobrich/Doe complaint claims that prayer — often sectarian — at board meetings, athletic events and other school functions served to help create a religiously exclusive environment.
That complaint also claims that district officials handed out Bibles in school and that one teacher told students there was only one true religion. Prayers delivered by local pastor Jerry Fike during official speeches at the 2004 Sussex Central High School graduation, though, seemed to be the real tipping point for the Dobriches. Marco and Mona Dobrich’s daughter, Samantha, graduated from Sussex Central that day.
“We pray that You direct them into the truth and eventually the truth that comes by knowing Jesus,” Fike said in one of the day’s prayers.