School Asks Student to Replace Bible Reading With Book About Witches
By Rusty Pugh, OneNewsNow.com
In one Pennsylvania public school, reading from the Bible is forbidden — but reading about witches and Halloween is encouraged.
Wesley Busch is a kindergarten student at Culbertson Elementary School in Newton Square, Pennsylvania — and all he wanted to do was have his mother read aloud from his favorite book, the Bible. The book reading was part of a classroom assignment called “All About Me,” the purpose of which was to provide students an opportunity to identify individual interests and learn about each other through the use of items such as stuffed animals, posters, books and other mediums.
Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says the school district had a big problem with Wesley’s favorite book. “When Wesley told his mom ‘I want you to read the Bible, that’s my favorite book,’ the school said no — even though they let every other book reading go forward,” the attorney explains. “And even though they told Mrs. Busch ‘no, you can’t read the Bible,’ [they said] ‘but here, read this book on witches and Halloween instead,'” says Tedesco.
In May, a federal court sided with the school and the case is now on appeal. Tedesco says public school officials need to understand that Christian students cannot be treated as second-class citizens.
“The lower court’s decision said that it was okay to restrict the Bible. But the bottom line is that Christian students and their parents aren’t second-class citizens at school, and shouldn’t be discriminated against based on their religious speech that they want to engage in when they’re invited to engage in private expression,” he says.
According to ADF, although reading from the Bible was forbidden the teacher allowed another parent to discuss the Jewish religious holidays of Passover and Hanukkah with the class.
(Source: OneNewsNow.com)
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