WITCHCRAFT LAWSUIT

   LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- A Waverly woman's lawsuit that claimed
teachings about witchcraft in the Waverly Public Schools violated
her religious beliefs has been dismissed in Lancaster County
District Court.
   District Judge Bernard McGinn said in his dismissal order that
the teaching materials neither advanced or inhibited religion nor
did the materials promote the church of Wicca or witchcraft.
   In a lawsuit filed in September 1985, Eileen Lippold asked the
court to declare materials about witchcraft as religious and to
order an injunction that would ban the materials from classrooms.
   The materials in question were a series of 8-year-old films
titled "Monsters and Other Science Mysteries." Lippold objected
to three of the films that dealt with witchcraft, extrasensory per
ception and astrology.
   She said the films were shown to two of her three children, who
are both high-school age now, when the children were in the
fifth-grade.
   Lippold filed the suit after she had protested to the Waverly
School Board several times to have the films removed but was turned
down each time.
   Lippold's suit said the films questioned the private beliefs of
students and advanced witchcraft, an organized religion that is
practiced by the church Wicca.
   Advancing witchcraft, Lippold contended, violated the state
constitution that says public schools must be free of sectarian
instruction.
   But, McGinn ruled Thursday the school's use of the films did not
violate the Nebraska constitution.