Wisc. school district fights Liberty Counsel distortions.

A public school district in Wisconsin is seeking an apology from a Religious Right legal group that spread inaccurate information about the district to buttress claims of a "war on Christmas."

In January, the Dodgeville School District sent a letter to Liberty Counsel (LC), a Jerry Falwell-affiliated group, demanding that it apologize for a press release LC issued in early December that claimed Ridgeway Elementary School officials had secularized the lyrics to "Silent Night" in the school's holiday programs. The district is also seeking $23,899.48 in compensation for the costs that officials incurred in refuting Liberty Counsel's claim.

"Your dissemination of false and misleading information and your threats of specious and frivolous litigation resulted in enormous cost to the district," wrote school attorney Eileen A. Brownlee in a letter to Liberty Counsel. "You have yet to present the facts either through a press release, on of your 'alerts' or through any other means. You used this red herring to attempt to collect money through the form of donations."

Liberty Counsel, in a Dec. 7 press release, claimed that Ridgeway public school officials were part of a campaign to rid Christmas from its holiday celebrations. In fact, the school put on a play about a homeless Christmas tree written by a church choir director in 1988 that used the melody of "Silent Night" with different lyrics to fit the play's theme.

At the time Church & State went to press, Liberty Counsel had not apologized for its actions or removed the Dec. 7 press release from its Web site.