The case originated in 1995 when several Catholic parents became aware that the Bedford Central School District was promoting what they felt was satanic worship in the form of the "Magic" card game. Attorney Mary Ann DiBari, who originally represented the plaintiffs but later joined them in the suit on behalf of her two grandchildren, says the game is "totally religious," steeped in satanic imagery, signs, and rituals such as human sacrifice and the casting of spells. "One of the cards depicts a woman about to be sacrificed, others allude to real satanists," Mrs. DiBari explains. "The object of the game is to accumulate 'mana,' which is 'power that comes from the earth.' "

"The cards represent a billion dollar industry," she adds, "and our children are paying the price with indoctrination into the occult."

The plaintiffs charged that the card game is part of a New Age curriculum in the school district which includes yoga lessons, cult worship, and religious activities. In learning about the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesha, for example, 3rd graders were required to make clay and construction paper cutouts of the god. Judge Brieant agreed in his ruling that this activity amounted to being forced to make "graven images" of religious gods, in violation of the students' religious beliefs.

The school district was also charged with engaging in what the judge called "truly bizarre" Earth Day celebrations, which he said "take on [many] of the attributes of the ceremonies of worship by organized religions, including that of the plaintiffs."

Mrs. DiBari describes a typical ceremony: "Students and senior citizens, who have also become part of earth worship services, sit in concentric circles around a giant inflated globe placed atop a bamboo tripod. The elderly people form the inside circle, symbolizing that they are closer to the earth and will return to it to nourish it. Teachers and school officials read speeches.

"A chorus of tom-tom drums plays throughout the proceedings. The earth is deified and students are urged to 'do something to make Mother Earth smile.'"

Evidence submitted in the case included "Exhibit 62," an audiotape entitled "Listening to Nature," which "intersperses prayers and invocations sonorously uttered along with background sounds of forest and ocean." The plaintiffs objected to the fact that the tape, which they characterized as "nature worship and guided imagery," was played in the school district's science classes.

A book of the same name contains a creed stating: "This is what we believe. The Mother of us all is the Earth. The Father is the Sun. The Grandfather is the Creator who bathed us with his mind and gave life to all things. The Brother is the beasts and trees. The Sister is that with wings. We are children of the earth and do it no harm in any way, nor do we offend the Sun by not greeting it at dawn. . ."

Page 65 of the book advises children that "[W]hen you need to cut down a tree or remove a plant from your garden, reflect on this prayer: 'We know that we all are children of the same Mother Earth, of our Father Sun. But, we also know that one life must sometimes give way to another, so that the one great life of all may continue unbroken. So we ask your permission, we obtain your consent for this killing.' "

Another Earth Day activity involved marking tombstones with the names of extinct birds and animals.

During at least one Earth Day ceremony, a school official told the assembly that there were "too many people on the earth and we need to do something about it." The court agreed that this statement was directly against the teaching of the Book of Genesis and in violation of the students' religious beliefs.

Mrs. DiBari says that she and the other plaintiffs are "very pleased" with Judge Brieant's decision, despite their disappointment with his ruling on Magic: The Gathering, which the school district sponsors as math classes.

"The court established four things that we hoped it would," she explains. "In declaring 'Thou shalt not make graven images,' the judge actually quoted scripture. We are relieved that schools will not be allowed to promote superstition or compel children to worship religious gods, and that the court labeled these activities violations of the First Amendment. We also welcome the court's acknowledgment that earth worship compels students to practice a world religion."

Mrs. DiBari is convinced that these dangerous activities and curricula are "coming from the United Nations and filtering down through the U.S. Department of Education." She says her conviction is based on the "volumes of documentation" she has received from researchers of U.N. speeches and documents, as well as from researchers of Goals 2000 documents. "We see the concept of Gaia being promoted in their own words, both written and spoken," she asserts, "and they are promoting satanism through blasphemous activities such as 'Magic: the Gathering.'"

Though spokesmen for the Bedford Central School District downplayed the outcome of the case, the attorney representing the district told the Associated Press that "the judge went further than any court in the country in directing the behavior of an individual school district."

The district is expected to appeal the decision.