My daughter (who is 12 years old and in 6th grade at a local public school) came home from school today with a little orange book. I saw her put it on the table and, curious, asked her what it was as it seemed too small to be a school book. Imagine my surprise when she hands it to me and it is the “New Testament plus Psalms & Proverbs.” Now I am even more surprised, because she hasn’t been anywhere except school today.

“Where did you get this?” I inquire.

“There were 3 elderly people at the school with boxes of them.” She replies

With some further Q&A to clarify the situation, I discovered that this occurred during recess. At my daughter’s school there is a courtyard which the classrooms are built around. At the north and south ends of the courtyard are gates which each lead to a parking lot. From what I know so far, it seems the school permitted 3 strangers to stand at the gates by the parking lot, accost the children as they passed through the gates on the way to the field for recess, and hand them each a Christian holy book. I want to clarify that I haven’t talked to the school yet, so I can not verify that the school administrators intentionally allowed this. However, my daughter did confirm that several teachers saw them at the gates handing out the books, and a couple even accepted books from the strangers, so it doesn’t seem that (at least these) school representatives had any problem with this.

I am bothered by this situation. On a personal level I feel that children should certainly be allowed to seek a path, they are, after all, people too. But these kids weren’t seeking this, it was brought to them, handed to them without explanation. Should they be presented with a one sided testament, unbeknownst to their parents, and without parental consent? Should they be handed such a heavy piece of literature with potentially no one to guide them or help them to understand its meaning and implications? What if this shined a light on religious difference within the school community and created a hostile atmosphere for children who do not share the belief in this book? My daughter has already had to defend her right to wear a pentagram necklace, and explain that it is not the devil’s star, on more than one occasion. Isn’t it reasonable to entertain the possibility that this could even trigger a wave of bully behavior?

Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? This wasn’t during a voluntary, after school activity… it was during regular school hours! These children weren’t asked if they wanted one, it was pushed into their hands. And though it does seem that the school permitted this activity (to be confirmed,) at the very least they didn’t prevent it.

I asked my daughter what she thought of this situation. To be certain to get a legitimate reaction from her, I didn’t tell her my thoughts quite yet.

“I thought it was offensive Mom.” ~daughter

“Why is that?” ~me

“Well, what if some of the kids aren’t Christian?” ~daughter

Always wishing to be honest with her, I told her the truth. “That’s the point. They hand out literature in hopes of converting them,” I explained.

“Mom? Does the bible say anything bad about gay people?” ~daughter

I wonder where that came from? “Yes, some interpretations of the bible contain statements considered anti-gay.” ~me

“There are a few gay kids at my school, won’t that hurt them?” ~daughter

My beautiful girl can be so darn smart sometimes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read the bible. Several times. I’ve even read the bible to my daughter. Heck, she has (at least) one in her room. Right next to her Wicca book. And a beginners guide to Reiki When my daughter was going to read “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” in English class I had to sign a permission slip. But when she is going to be given her own personal copy of a book that has been used as the excuse for mass murder for 2 millennium, I get nothing? Does this make sense?

And if all of this isn’t reason enough to be disturbed, there is the extremely important issue of safety. Under whose authority can 3 strangers stand on the edge of a parking lot, and interact with children who do not know them, in an uncontrolled setting? I don’t know if this is the norm, but when my daughter was in elementary school I had to submit to a background check before I could chaperone any field trips. Were background checks performed on these people being allowed on school grounds? How was my daughter’s safety, and the safety of her classmates, guarded during this time? What was to prevent one of these strangers from pulling a kid into a car in that lot, and taking off with them? Would anyone had even known before recess was over?

I need to find out what the school did and did not know, did and did not permit, and what my rights are in a situation like this. And most importantly, I need to find out what day they want me there to hand out copies of Cunningham’s Book of Shadows? After all, I should have every right to rebuttal right? Yeah, right. LOL!

~Anyanka Jean