School System Chief Bans Pastoral Visits Over Lunch
by Jim Brown
February 17, 2004
(AgapePress) - Christian pastors in Kentucky are protesting a local school administrator's decision to dump a longstanding policy that allowed local ministers to visit students during school hours.Bullitt County Schools superintendent Michael Eberbaugh recently told Ronald Shaver and other pastors they could not meet with students during their lunch break, as they have for the last 17 years. Even though Eberbaugh admits he has seen no worshipping or evangelizing on campus and has received no complaints about the mentoring visits, the schools' chief has put a stop to those visits.
Pastor Shaver believes this is a case of blatant discrimination against Christians. He feels schools that are supported by public funds should not be able to deny any student the right and privilege of spending non-instructional free time with a minister-mentor if that is how some students choose to spend their lunch breaks.
"They can go to the gym and play basketball, but they can't have lunch with one of their ministers," Shaver says, "and we find that to be appalling and irrational."
The pastor insists the longstanding pastoral mentoring arrangement that was nearing the end of its second decade was designed not to proselytize, but to help students. "Our goal is to be good community builders," he says, "and we believe that if we can add value to people's lives, certainly their lives will be enhanced, and they'll be more likely to receive Christ. But our goal at school is simply to be friends and encouragers and mentors to these kids."
The Bullitt County School Board is scheduled to decide at its Tuesday night meeting whether to maintain the ban on visits from area pastors. If the board fails to reinstate its prior visitation policy at its meeting, Shaver says he will file a lawsuit the following day.
