TRI In The News

Religious Material a No-No on School Playgrounds

From OneNewsNow
Original article available here.

A Pennsylvania third-grader is getting legal help after being told by school officials that she can't hand out Christian tracts on the playground.

Felicia Clark wanted to share her faith by passing out Christian pamphlets to her classmates during playtime. But officials at Northwest Intermediate School in Shickshinny said she could not do that -- which caused her family to seek assistance through The Rutherford Institute.

"We have contacted the school saying that they are violating her right to freedom of religious expression, and also citing a Pennsylvania State Board of Education rule which allows for the right of students to express themselves during non-instructional time -- which playground time would be non-instructional time -- unless it interferes with the educational process, and I don't think they can prove that here," says Rutherford president John Whitehead.

The group spokesman says he is insisting that school officials respond quickly and allow the girl to exercise her right to free expression.

"For some reason there's this erroneous assumption in most public schools that anything religious -- and mainly we're talking about Christianity -- is unconstitutional automatically, and they use the term 'illegal' now, not 'unconstitutional,'" the spokesman states.

Whitehead says if the school continues to deny the girl her rights, they will have to file a lawsuit.