A motion by three teen-age brothers to modify their divorced parents' custody agreement was thrown out Friday in Mercer County Common Pleas Court.

Judge Thomas R. Dobson said he dismissed the motion because minors don't have a right to take legal action in cases involving their own custody.

"The children on their own had filed a petition seeking modification of custody. The law, however, does not permit a child (legal) standing to pursue a custody action," Dobson said.

The Shenango Valley teens had sought changes in the custody agreement because they feel it does not allow them to freely practice the religion of their choice.

The issue of religious freedom, however, did not factor into Friday's decision, Dobson said.

The boys, 13-year-old twins and a 14-year-old, are the children of Sherry B. Frank of Sharpsville and Dr. Alan J. Frank, a Hermitage optometrist, who have shared custody on an alternating weekly basis since they separated in 1997. The father is Jewish and the mother is a Christian.

Ms. Frank was raised Methodist but converted to Judaism when she married Frank in 1985. She left the Jewish faith after the separation and now belongs to Community Baptist Church in Farrell.

The boys, who were raised Jewish, were baptized at the Farrell church less than two months after their parents' divorce became official in 2000. Ms. Frank did not get her former husband's consent to the baptisms.

Ms. Frank, whose motion to get primary custody of the boys was thrown out this spring, said the boys cannot freely participate in worship services and other Christian activities while they are in their father's custody and can read their Bibles and discuss Christian principles only among themselves in their bedrooms at their father's home.

The boys' father has said that he is "just trying to establish a framework for the boys based on what I know and how I was raised."

Greenville attorney Chris St. John earlier this summer filed a motion on behalf of the teens -- who did not attend Friday's court arguments -- to modify the custody agreement. While he said he had yet to confer with his clients as of yesterday afternoon, St. John said the boys are not necessarily out of legal options.

"One potential option the boys would have is to file a whole new lawsuit of some kind in Mercer County, outside of the custody matter, with regard to religious freedom," St. John said.