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Students attend religious classes during school MONMOUTH (AP) - Parents across Oregon are asking public schools to allow their youngsters to attend outside religious classes during the school day. School officials are required to do so by law, but they are prohibited from promoting the programs. ``We're going to honor parents' request to do this,'' said Monmouth Elementary School Principal Bill Layton. During the last hour of school Thursdays, about 50 youngsters leave the school to attend religious classes. More than half the nearby Dallas School District's elementary and middle school students and about 150 high school students miss about an hour of classroom time to attend Dallas' Weekday School of the Bible. Scott Zentz, who has children in 10th- and third-grades, says the Bible classes round out their education. ``It's another good environment where there's good teachers, another good adult they can talk to,'' said Zentz, who attended the Bible school when he was a child. A 1965 state law requires schools to release students for religious study, but the schools have the discretion to determine when that occurs, said Mike Wittmayer, director of policy services for the Oregon School Boards Association. ``It's very typical across the state to have kids in varying numbers released for religious instruction,'' Wittmayer said. David Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said some believe that religious release time could be challenged and overturned under the Oregon Constitution, ``especially if the students left behind don't receive new instruction.'' School officials, however, also are committed to meeting Oregon's benchmark requirements at checkpoints at grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. Students who attend religious classes must make up lessons missed at Monmouth Elementary, Layton said. In the Dallas district, no new material is introduced while they are away from class. Instead, lessons are remedial, Superintendent Dave Voves said. High school students miss study hall or elective classes when they attend Bible school. Middle school students' schedules rotate, so they miss a specific class once every seven weeks. Visit our back issue library Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Western Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2000 Lee Northwest Publishing