This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A Texas school district has blinked in its battle over a student's typed Bible verses she wanted to hand out to classmates.
According to a report from the American Center for Law and Justice, officials in the Killeen Independent School District have confirmed a reversal of their policy that had been used to deprive a 5th-grade student with special needs of the right to share Bible verses with classmates.
"After swift legal intervention from our team, the school district acknowledged that students have the right to distribute religious materials during non-instructional time," the organization reported. "This is more than just a policy change – it's a clear affirmation that students do not lose their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate."
The case developed when "a young girl, deeply rooted in her Christian faith and motivated solely by love and sincerity, began sharing typed Bible verses on little strips of paper with classmates during recess, lunch, and after school."
Everything the girl did was outside classroom instruction time.
However, she was reprimanded by her principal and her materials were confiscated in a confrontation that was triggered by school officials on May 12.
Her offense was that the materials "contained Scripture," the ACLJ report said.
"This little girl was deceived by the principal into thinking the principal wanted to hand out these strips of 'joy' when, in reality, the principal was suppressing her speech. The justification? Hypothetical complaints from parents – complaints that were never made," the report said.
The ACLJ was told by the student's foster mother of the constitutional violations at the district and immediately dispatched a demand letter.
"We were prepared to take legal action, including completely drafting a lawsuit in case the school district wanted to close ranks and erroneously protect unconstitutional conduct by its administrators and teachers," the report said.
As the minutes wound down to the deadline for the school to respond, its lawyer, Mike Harper, approached the ACLJ with a letter explaining, "I discussed with the principal that a student may distribute religious materials during non-instructional time, when the distribution does not interfere with work in the classroom. I explained that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held in a similar case that a student may be allowed to distribute religious messages and that Killeen ISDS Board Policy has incorporated the holding of this case and its progeny… Based on the law in the Fifth Circuit and Board Policy, we further discussed that if a student brings small slips of paper with Bible verses to distribute to classmates, she should be allowed to distribute these during non-instructional time."
The ACLJ point out that it actually is the U.S. Supreme Court, in Tinker v. Des Moines, that established that students retain their First Amendment rights in public schools.
The legal team explained, "The Constitution does not permit a 'heckler's veto' – silencing speech just because someone might be offended."
"This incident is part of a disturbing trend. Across the country, we're witnessing growing hostility toward religious expression in public schools. Too many administrators operate under the false belief that faith must be excluded from the classroom entirely. That's not just wrong – it's unconstitutional," the ACLJ said.
WND reported when the fight arose that the student's mother, in fact, "explained to school officials that her daughter had a 'constitutional right to distribute religious literature and share her joy and faith during non-class time.'"
