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Updated 31 minutes ago
The Ten Commandments will be leaving Valley High School soon.
Under an agreement between the New Kensington-Arnold School District and the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation announced Tuesday, the district agreed to remove the stone monument containing the Commandments within 30 days.
The agreement ends a federal lawsuit filed in Sept. 2012 by Marie Schaub, who claimed the monument was a strictly religious symbol and was offensive to herself and her daughter, who was a Valley High School student at the time.
In July, 2015, a federal judge dismissed Schaub's suit, ruling that, because Schaub had withdrawn her daughter from Valley High School, she did not have standing to file such a suit.
But, a month later, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Schaub's lawsuit, ruling that withdrawing her daughter from Valley High School to avoid having to see the monument daily was proof of “injury” from the presence of the religious symbol.
Under the agreement to remove the monument, the school district's insurance company will pay $163,500 in legal fees, including more than $40,000 to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Emily Balser is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4680 or emilybalser@tribweb.com.
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