York Dispatch - York Today

Meetings were like revivals TRIAL WITNESS: CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN The York Dispatch

HARRISBURG -- The meeting reminded Carol "Casey" Brown of the traveling tent revivals that used to set up at the York Fairgrounds.

But it was a meeting of the Dover Area school board in June 2004, the former school board member said in court yesterday.

And behind the microphone, instead of a traveling preacher, was Charlotte Buckingham, school board member William Buckingham's wife.

Charlotte Buckingham quoted scripture from the Old Testament and said the district students would be cheated if they couldn't learn about biblical creation.

She told people how to accept Jesus Christ as their "personal savior," Brown said.

Alan Bonsell, board president at the time, allowed Buckingham to continue for about 15 minutes, three times the length of public comment permitted at the board's meetings, Brown testified.

As she sat there listening, she heard muttered amens coming from her fellow board members sitting at the table around her. She wasn't sure who, exactly. She heard the whispered affirmations rising up from both sides of her, she testified.

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