Controversy erupted when a California public school teacher saw a seven-year-old boy passing out handwritten notes to other students during lunchtime and told him to stop. She forced him to stop passing on the notes, even though the notes were not causing any physical harm, but designed to inspire his fellow schoolmates.
The notes put in the boy’s lunchbox to give to other kids were simple Bible verses written by his mom. Unfortunately, the situation blew up into a controversy as the elementary school sent the sheriff to the boy’s home to ask his parents to please stop distributing the Bible verse notes.
It seems that the Liberty Counsel has decided to step in and offer legal support for the boy and his family. In a press release, they say the family is considering legal action against Desert Rose Elementary School of Palmdale for “an outrageous violation of a first grader’s constitutional rights.”
According to local media sources, the boy (named “C”) began by reading Bible verses to his school friends at lunch. The bible verse reading grew in popularity and C asked his mom, Christina Zavala, to put some extra bible verses in his lunchbox for his friends. Christina included short stories with some of the Bible verses for an explanation.
A couple of weeks later, a teacher informed Christina that her son could not pass out the verses at school, because of laws about “separation of church and state.” C was told that he could only give out the Bible notes after school, and in the area close to the school’s gate.
Within days, there were as many as 15 students meeting at the gate after school for Bible verses. Eventually, principal Melanie Pagliaro asked that C move the Bible verse meeting completely off of school property.
C cooperated with the principal’s request, and the bible verse swap was now occurring on the public sidewalk right in front of the school.
However, just days later, a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff came to the Zavala’s home, informing parents Jaime and Christina that C could not pass out the bible verse notes any longer. The deputy told them that it was public space and “someone might be offended” by a Bible verse.
The Palmdale School District superintendent noted in a statement that the district was still reviewing the case. He confirmed a sheriff’s officer was sent to Jaime and Christina’s home but said he could not reveal any other details.
Source: Go Tumble
Photo: Go Tumble
