A seven-year-old student at a school in Palmdale, California has been barred by his school to distribute Bible verses during lunch time in school. The boy was also visited by a sheriff who told his family that their boy should stop the distribution of Bible verses because "someone might be offended."
The family has sought the help of Liberty Counsel, which wrote the Palmdale School District about the incident at Desert Rose Elementary School.
According to the nonprofit Christian legal organisation, the incident started when mom Christina Zavala put an encouraging note and Bible verse in a packed lunch of his first-grade son, who showed it to his friends during lunch time at school. The student started attending the school last January.
The boy began reading the Bible verses to his friends, who would eagerly wait for the next day's lunch notes and Bible verse.
The movement grew as other students asked the boy for copies of the Bible verse and short stories, which he would read to his friends.
However, the school banned the Bible verse distribution during lunch time and told the student that he could distribute them at the school gate after the bell rang.
Zavala wrote the school in April to correct the misinformation. Despite this, a school teacher reprimanded the boy in front of his class and told to stop talking about religion or sharing his mother's notes. He went home in tears.
The parents complied with the school gate order and soon as many as 15 students looked forward to the Bible notes.
However, on May 9, Principal Melanie Pagliaro approached the boy's father at the school gate and told him that his son should hand out the note on a public sidewalk, far from the school property. The family complied.
Later that day, a Los Angeles deputy sheriff visited the family at their home and told them to stop the student's sharing activity because "someone might be offended."
The Liberty Counsel said these are violations of the student's constitutional rights.
"I would expect something like this to happen in Communist Romania, where I went to elementary school, but cops don't bully seven-year-olds who want to talk about Jesus in the Land of the Free," said Horatio Mihet, vice president of Liberty Counsel.
In response, the Palmdale School District said, "It has come to our attention that the religious freedom rights of a student and his parents may have been violated at Palmdale School District Desert Rose Elementary School."
It assured the public that it respects the religious liberties of its students and parents to the fullest extent of law and that it is investigating the incident.
"The District will take all appropriate action with respect to this incident, and will take such further action as may be needed to protect the religious liberties of its students and parents on an ongoing basis," it said.
