Little Lillian Gobitas of Minersville didn't feel right about what she was forced to do. So she did something about it.

On Oct. 21, 1935, the 12-year-old declined to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance at her classroom in the Minersville School District.Gobitas belonged to the Jehovah's Witnesses and refused compliance under religious objection. Lillian's brother William, fifth grade, did the same.The school board called it an act of insubordination. The children were tossed out of school."They expelled us right then and there," said Gobitas, who died in August.The family challenged it in court. They won in U.S. District Court and then before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.But the school appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1940, by 8-1 vote, the Court sided with the district and upheld the expulsions. Shockingly, just three years later, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn their earlier decision.Their landmark reversal solidified the role of the Court in purview of constitutional liberties. And rightfully so. Our country was founded on principles of freedom, liberty and independence.That includes freedom to practice any religion, or not practice, as one sees fit.At the very core of our nation's existence is a distinct separation of church and state. Yet it's been an issue from the start.For decades, a captive audience of schoolchildren of many different faiths was forced to listen to and recite prayers of only one specific religion. That popular practice, quite simply, was wrong. But it was corrected, and again, the Keystone state led the way.The abject unfairness was abolished by the Supreme Court in the case of Abington School District v. Schempp, 1963, by 8-1 vote in support of student Edward Schempp.Schempp, a Unitarian Universalist from Abington Township, complained he was forced to hear and sometimes read aloud portions of the Bible as part of public school education, contrary to his beliefs.The court rightfully declared school-sponsored Bible reading in U.S. public schools unconstitutional.However, don't misunderstand the message. God wasn't kicked out of school for believers. Any student can still quietly pray. But a school cannot lead and sanction school prayer. That legal decision put an end to a long-held practice of tyranny by the majority.It was the correct decision in 1963 and remains extremely important today.There's always a movement, it seems, by those who try to force their brand of religion on others.When you hear them say: "Let's return to school prayer," you can bet they only want to proselytize for their own brand.Our Founding Fathers, many of them deists, were resolute in avoiding establishment of a state church. "Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law," said Thomas Jefferson in his letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper on Feb. 10, 1814.There's always a push somewhere for indoctrination. There's always a mindset that wants to force you by law to pledge, worship and bow to symbols, idols, Scripture or primitive, arcane codes of specific belief systems.For that reason and others, it's important to remember the courage of young minds from Minersville and Abington that questioned the status quo and fought for what's right.There's nothing more sacred than free thought and individual liberties.Our Founding Fathers knew it all along. They erected a high wall of separation.And that wall protects us today.By DONALD R. SERFASSdserfass@tnonline.com