PEARISBURG, VA. – Nearly 12 years ago, in the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School, officials quietly posted the Ten Commandments on the walls of Giles County public schools. It was a natural reaction, said residents of this rural county peppered with churches, to such an alarming moral breakdown.
There the commandments stayed, within nondescript frames that also featured the first page of the U.S. Constitution, stirring little controversy until December. That’s when an anonymous complaint prompted the superintendent to order the removal of the displays. The decision sparked such passionate community backlash that the county school board voted to post them again in January.
Giles County is down on the Virginia/West Virginia border, just for a location. It is in the heart of Virginia’s bible belt. In fact, it is so bible belt that they run a bible bus to Christian classes during the school day, according to the WaPo:
The district also runs a so-called “Bible Bus” so that students can get privately organized Christian instruction off site during the middle of the school day.
