Arkansas Church Gains Rightful Access to Hand Out Flyers in Schools
by Allie Martin
September 30, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Baptist church is now able to distribute brochures in one Arkansas school district. District officials are being praised for reversing their decision denying the church that right.Recently Anthony Shepherd, the children's pastor for the First Baptist Church of Cabot, Arkansas, attempted to hand out flyers in local schools informing student about the Upward Basketball Program. But Shepherd was told by school officials that he could not distribute the brochures. The alleged reason? School officials cited the so-called "separation of Church and State."
Shepherd then contacted the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy (CLP), explaining the district permit's a variety of non-student groups to distribute literature at the schools. On behalf of the youth pastor, CLP attorney Brian Fahling wrote a letter to the district, outlining the church's rights under the First Amendment. Fahling explains the school reversed its position when it understood the law.
Brian Fahling | |
"This is just a generic equal access principle," he says, "and in this case it was a non-student group that wanted access to the school. The school allowed non-student, secular groups in but were denying it to this church -- and you can't do that. It's just a very simple calculus here: what other groups are permitted to do, Christians are permitted to do."The attorney says the case is another example of the importance of educating public schools about what the law -- not the American Civil Liberties Union -- requires.
"The school was just originally acting on bad information," Fahling says. "But once they learned what the law really is they corrected their error and allowed Pastor Shepherd and First Baptist Church to distribute those brochures."
First Baptist Church of Cabot has now distributed 5,000 brochures to students in first through sixth grades.
