The Cumberland County Board of Education will tackle a controversial subject during Thursday night’s meeting. The subject concerns the placement of the Ten Commandments in schools. At a past meeting, Board Attorney Earl Patton informed members that the school system received a letter of complaint from the Freedom from Religion Organization concerning plaques of the Ten Commandments which are displayed on local school’s Freedom Walls. Most schools around the state display a Freedom Wall which exhibits copies of documents, such as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. In January 2013, the BOE decided to incorporate the Ten Commandments into the Freedom Wall shrines in local schools. At that time, Mr. Patton reminded the board that there could be repercussions, particularly at the federal level. Since then, several of the schools have added such plaques. Patton told the board that the latest letter disagrees with placing the Ten Commandments on school walls as it could be considered as promoting religion in schools which would be a violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Patton said that although Tennessee Code Annotated provides some leeway for schools in this matter, he said that it “would not help the board in a lawsuit” because federal law supersedes state law. It was discussed that even though the board authorized the placement of the plaques, they were purchased and placed into the schools by residents of the community. During the discussion, Patton recommended that the plaques be temporarily removed from the schools until a solution is discovered that would be constitutionally sound with all parties.