Baldwin schools file suit against street preachers

By Melissa D. Newton

October 18, 2008, 6:48AM

The Press-Register

BAY MINETTE -- Having twice fended off litigation by a Loxley street preacher and his wife since 2005, Baldwin County's school board asked a judge last week for help to block them from suing again.

In response, Orlando and Glynis Bethel filed yet another suit Thursday, demanding the board pay them damages of $5 million.

The Bethels, angry at being denied permission to set up a Christian after-school program, maintain that they deserved a trial by jury on a previous lawsuit accusing the board of religious bias.

Orlando Bethel became briefly famous nationally in 2002 when he touched off a fracas at a Loxley funeral by disparaging the mourners and shouting that the deceased was burning in hell.

The Baldwin board's battles with the Bethels have cost it legal fees of more than $30,000, according to schools spokesman Terry Wilhite.

The board sued Oct. 10 in the local Circuit Court asking "for guidance in hopes of preventing prolonged legal expense to the taxpayers," Wilhite wrote in an e-mail.

Swarm of suits

Since 2005, the Bethels have filed more than a dozen federal lawsuits against various government entities in Alabama, including the Baldwin school board, the town of Loxley and the cities of Selma, Montgomery and Robertsdale. In general, those suits claimed violations of civil rights and religious freedoms, and were dismissed or transferred to state court.

On Sept. 30, for example, U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose in Mobile tossed a 2006 suit by the Bethels against the Baldwin board. In her order, DuBose wrote that Glynis Bethel failed to show up for a hearing related to a verbal altercation with court employees.

Glynis Bethel called the dismissal illegal and argued that the disagreement in question happened outside DuBose's courtroom, and thus outside her jurisdiction.

According to court documents, the Bethels remain under a restraining order that bars them from coming within 200 feet of Loxley Elementary School, Baldwin students and board employees during school hours and functions.

The restraining order was filed in February 2005 after the pair held signs and preached across the street from Loxley Elementary.

Still, on Thursday, Glynis Bethel protested at the school board office in Bay Minette before a school board meeting. At one point, she addressed the board and called them "the board of evil."

No one at the meeting asked her to leave.

Bethel accuses the board of violating her and her husband's rights as taxpayers by refusing to agree to the Christian after-school program. In a September letter to Superintendent Faron Hollinger, she suggested that the board mistreats Christians who have "a fire and brimstone message."

The dispute about the program began in 2005, when Glynis Bethel sought to launch "Be a MODEL for the GOSPEL" using school facilities. Bethel said it would teach Christian views about teenage pregnancy, juvenile delinquency and sexual abstinence.

'Made it clear'

Bethel has complained that school administrators kept her away because she had attempted to proselytize students while substitute teaching at Baldwin County High in 2005. "The staff made it clear that my desire to talk about Jesus Christ and repentance during the school hour was not acceptable and violated the verbal orders of the staff," Glynis Bethel wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Assistant Superintendent Janay Dawson defended the board's position in an affidavit included with last week's filing to Circuit Court. "On several occasions while at Baldwin County school facilities, the Bethels refused to adhere to board policies and school rules, refused to comply with reasonable instructions from school administrators, frightened students and disrupted educational activities and extracurricular activities," Dawson wrote.