A southwest Missouri superintendent said he won't sign a proposed settlement of a federal lawsuit that challenges the display of a plaque featuring the Ten Commandments in a school.
Greg Thompson, who has been placed on administrative leave without pay for his support of the plaque, was the lone holdout among the Humansville R-IV School District officials named as defendants.
His decision would not affect the agreement in which the district's insurance provider would pay $45,000 to plaintiff Carrie M. Roat, an attorney said.
Thompson would remain legally vulnerable.
“I believe that we should always comply with the law, but never if it overrides God's law or the Constitution,” Thompson said.
In the lawsuit, Roat said the district violated the separation of church and state guaranteed under the Constitution by allowing the plaque to hang in the cafeteria where junior and senior high school students eat.
Roat also said the district had adopted a policy at the school that allowed prayers to be said on various occasions, such as Veterans Day assemblies, as well as before athletic banquets.
In addition to the money, the settlement forbids the district from displaying any religious symbols and from leading students in prayer.
Tom Mickes, an attorney for the school's insurance provider, said Wednesday that the settlement would be filed this week with the U.S. District Court in Springfield. It was unclear when the district judge overseeing the case would rule on the settlement.
“I think it's time to put this behind us and get on with educating kids,” Mickes said.
Meanwhile, school board members were expected to meet Wednesday night to approve a severance agreement that would terminate Thompson and give him two months' pay.