 The Appalachian Advantage plan is the simpler, better way to get the phone you actually want instead of paying hundreds of dollars up front. Simply pay the taxes up front and a few extra dollars on your monthly bill and get the phone you really want. It's called the Appalachian Advantage and is available at Appalachian Wireless. The Letcher County Public Schools District has found itself in a controversy over religious displays in its facilities. A Fox News report published yesterday broke the story on the controversy that started when an atheist group filed a complaint with the district over the posting of scriptures and prayers in three schools. The complaint has resulted in the religious postings being removed and that has prompted numerous complaints and comments against the school district and its superintendent, Denise Yance. I spoke to Yance about the controversy and she told me that despite the action that had to be taken in removing the religious postings, students are still free to express themselves, including expressing their religious beliefs. The Letcher County Central High School Football locker room used to display the text of the Book of Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 11, but the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior. A bulletin board at Fleming Neon Middle School used to read, Jesus is my savior, you can't scare me. And the Martha Jane Potter Elementary School Facebook page used to have posted a prayer thanking God for education and praying students will be confident and kind to their peers. Now the wall of the locker room is painted blue, the bulletin board has been changed and the prayer post has been removed. All the result of a complaint filed by the group Freedom from Religion Foundation. The group filed a complaint with the school district in November over the postings stating that a quote concerned area resident end quote reported them. Public officials took action to remove the postings they believed were not in compliance with laws relating to separation of church and state. It's not something that I wanted to do at all, but I do want to respect the law and do want to follow the law so that we can allow our students the religious freedoms that they deserve. And I think you do that by respecting the law. The law does separate church and state, but it also allows our students religious freedoms. The action by the school district has elicited passionate responses, some in favor of the action by the district, with many more opposed. Superintendent Denise Yance says it's important for the public to realize that the displays taken down were only those posted by or with the assistance of school staff members. The displays were put up by adults and that's not within the law. In our opinion it doesn't comply with what the law allows. The law allows our students to express their religious freedoms and to generate those displays to participate in Bible clubs and other extracurricular activities around their religion and they're welcomed and encouraged to do those things in our school system. But by following the law we allow those things to happen and so when we looked at these we didn't feel like they complied with the law so they were asked to be taken down. Superintendent Yance says students are free to express themselves, including expressing their religious beliefs. What that story doesn't tell is the other side of our school system where we do have active Bible clubs, where we do have prayer circles and different activities for students where they're allowed to express their religious freedoms. The Freedom from Religion Foundation has said it is satisfied with the school district's response to the issue. Students never really factored into it. Our discussion is about what's doing the right thing and following the law. We have a great community who's very supportive and they will fight battles for us and I think putting that burden on our community, on our students is unfair when it's an outside group that really doesn't know us, doesn't know our culture and it's not something that we have to fight to continue to enjoy our religious freedoms. We don't need to give them any more publicity or any more credence to what they say or do, particularly because we don't agree with them and if we don't follow the law then they do win because they come in with lawsuits and do all of those things and so I just think it's an unnecessary evil. Democrats told me that religious displays posted by students alone with no staff involvement can still be found in the district's schools and those displays will not be removed. Reporting in Letra County, Chris Anderson, Mountain Top News.