No Bibles

Maryland School Sued for Refusing to Let Girl Read Bible [Excerpts]
 
(CNSNews.com) - A conservative civil liberties group has filed suit against a school in Greenbelt, Md., for violating the constitutional rights of a seventh-grader who was allegedly threatened with discipline for reading her Bible in school.
 
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School. Eighth grade Vice Principal Jeannette Rainey and Principal Charoscar Coleman are among the defendants in the suit.
 
According to the student's mother, Maryanne Mangum, Amber was reading her Bible after finishing her lunch when Rainey gave her a "verbal warning" to put the Bible away.
 
Amber was told she "was not allowed to read it, and if it happened again," Amber would be punished, her mother said. "She didn't take the Bible back to school."
 
The school district's policy, along with the guidelines under the U.S. Department of Education's 2003 No Child Left Behind Act, gives students the right to read Bibles or other religious scriptures during lunch hour, recess or other non-instructional times.
 
"NCLBA, which is federal law that came in under the Bush administration, actually has this provision stating that students have a right to read their Bibles or other religious scriptures during the school day. It provides for that. It says also that you can actually get your federal funding taken away if you violate the NCLBA," [John W. Whitehead, president and founder of the Rutherford Institute] explained.
 
But Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, said most of the time, "right-wing groups" that file lawsuits "exaggerate what happened in school, and that is usually brought out later in the case."
 
"What probably happened is this kid, I'll bet you, was being disruptive. I bet this kid was proselytizing, was preaching, doing something that was annoying other kids and was told to stop. Kids don't normally want to read the Bible at lunch time-I don't care who they are. It's just not something kids want to do," said Johnson.
 
[TBC: Contrary to American Atheists president Ellen Johnson, there certainly are kids who do want to read the Bible. While American Atheists no doubt make "liberty" a key point in their public presentations, they have no problem denying others their legal rights.]
 
(Mulhern, CNSNews.com Correspondent, 10/04/06).