FINDLAY, OH- The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio sent a letter to Findlay City Schools Superintendent Dean Witter requesting him to immediately stop school employees from escorting students to visit missionaries during school hours. According to reports, individuals were outside the school distributing Gideon bibles, and all fifth grade students at Findlay City Schools were removed from class in order to receive a bible from the proselytizers.
ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link said, “The ACLU is committed to respecting the rights of anyone to practice a religion or not, but the school has clearly overstepped its bounds. By taking time away from class instruction for a clear religious proselytizing purpose, the school has openly forced the views of a single religious sect on young people.”
"Gideon International has a right to distribute its bibles on public property, but the school cannot be involved in sacrificing classroom time to help them hand out the bibles. If students or their parents wish to receive information about a particular religion, they should do so outside of school time," added Link.
In its letter to Witter, the ACLU of Ohio points out that Gideon International is an inherently sectarian organization, whose sole mission is to distribute the bible to convert individuals to its particular Christian sect.
According to news reports, many of the schools did not alert parents to the fact they planned to use school time to distribute Gideon bibles. Out of five schools in the Findlay City Schools District, only two sent home notices to parents offering the option to opt out of the activity. The notices were sent home with students, rather than mailed directly to parents.
Link concluded, “Even if all the schools sent home letters explaining the activity to parents, they still would have exceeded their bounds. Schools simply may not have activities like this during school hours. Parents, not the schools, should be able to choose what religion, if any, they want to expose their children to.”
