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We recently heard from the parents of Gabrielle, a second grader in Illinois. It seems Gabrielle likes to bring her Bible to school and read it during recess. Sometimes she reads it aloud, and sometimes other kids listen in and talk with her about what she’s reading. Constitutional crisis? It shouldn’t be; but little Gabrielle had her Bible taken away by a teacher and was told, “You just can’t be doing that.”Next, the school contacted Gabrielle’s parents and told them their little girl could not read the Bible during recess. When the parents pushed back, the school backed off a bit – she could read it during outside recess but not during inside recess. The school confirmed that no student nor any parent of any student had complained about Gabrielle’s reading or even mentioned it. It was a simple case of public school officials’ hypersensitivity to the specter of a threat from the ACLU or some similar spreader of long-debunked propaganda about “separation of Church and State.”...Since we were able to show that in Gabrielle’s case there wasn’t even a hint of disruption of the work and discipline of the school – not even a complaint – there was no reason to crack down on a second grader’s reading of her Bible on the playground or in the classroom during recess. We’re happy to report that after reviewing our letter, the school thanked us for educating them and removed all restrictions on Gabrielle’s reading.
