Federal Judge Orders Halt To Bible Distribution At Louisiana Public School
Earlier in the week, a federal judge in Louisiana ordered a public school board there to halt a practice of allowing Bible distribution at an elementary school.
Last year after Principal Andre Pellerin of Loranger Middle School in Tangipahoa Parish allowed an evangelical group, Gideons International, to distribute the Bibles to fifth-graders outside of Pellerin’s office, parents complained about the practice.
One fifth-grader said that she feared being taunted by her peers if she did not take a Bible. The student’s parents sued the school board after it refused to bar distribution of Bibles. Judge Carl J. Barbier, in an 11-page ruling, said the school board’s practice of allowing the Bible distribution was a violation of the First Amendment principle of the separation of church and state. Barbier found that the school board had no secular purpose for allowing the Bible distribution and that in elementary schools, students should not be coerced to engage in religious activities.
The court concluded, in part, that the Bible distribution was “ultimately coercive” as the fifth-grader “was pressured to accept a Bible” in violation of federal court precedent and that the distribution of Bibles “is a religious activity without a secular purpose.”
The school board, which has a long history of defending policies against First Amendment challenges, voted quickly to appeal Barbier’s ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Board Attorney Chris Moody told The Advocate, a Baton Rouge daily, that the school board was “very disappointed with the judge’s decision.”
Written By:Sylvia0521 On April 27, 2008 9:54 PM Written By:Bret On April 28, 2008 9:29 PM
Oh sylvia, try listening to yourself. "starts at the home" . Thats where it belongs. Schools are secular for a reason. How would you feel about schools giving out the Quran and loads of other religious books that don't talk about Jesus. Lets not forget how much of a dick God was during the old testament... that can't be a good lesson for kids, unless you want to scare them into believing fairy tales. Kids don't need acceptance of christian values in society, they need acceptance of independent and critical thought, not more mindless homogeneity. This act is not persecution, in fact, it remedies it. Stop pushing your ungrounded beliefs on others... thats the real atrocity.
The decision in Roe v. Tangipahoa Parish School Board is correct because religion does not belong in our public schools under the 1st and 14th Amendments. Aside from our secular form of government, the truth is that religion dumbs down our educational system by substituting fairy tales for critical inquiry and reason. Our educational system has been going down hill the last couple of decades as parents of the Christian Right have infuse their breed of religion into our schools. Get Jesus out and keep him out. Then our kids will shine again. Amen.
Today's children are our leaders of tomorrow and they need the guidance of Jesus to guide them to make wise decisions. Believing in Jesus starts at home with the parents, but to take it out of their public lives is an atrocity. The Gideon Bibles not only promote Jesus in these childrens' lives, they also give the children a sense of acceptance in society as to their Christian values. We all face persecution every day of our lives for our beliefs, this is just another example of persecution due to religion.