Prohibition of Bible Reading at Recess Results in Lawsuit
by Jim Brown
June 6, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Tennessee elementary school is being sued for barring a ten-year-old boy from reading his Bible during recess.
Knox County School officials have been served with a federal lawsuit alleging they violated the free-speech rights of fourth-grader Luke Whitson. The young student was recently prohibited from reading his Bible with a few friends on the playground at Karns Elementary School in Knoxville. The school claims recess is not "free time," but in fact instructional time -- and thus, the Bible reading during recess violates the so-called separation of church and state.
Whitson's attorney, Chuck Pope with the Alliance Defense Fund, says the school is trampling the boy's constitutional rights and should stop immediately.
"He was under the impression that they were telling him there he was something wrong with his Christian faith -- that there was something wrong with him reading his Bible," Pope explains. "He was, in fact, treated like a second-class citizen."
Prior to the suit being filed, the district contended in a response through the media that recess is not "free time." But ADF points out that recess has long been regarded as non-instructional time, during which students are free to read or discuss a wide range of literature -- including the Bible. Pope says his firm and his clients had hoped to avoid litigation.
"At the outset, our hope was to resolve the situation and have the school make a policy statement protecting Luke's constitutional rights, as well as those kids that are similarly situated to him, that children do have a right under the Constitution to read their Bible during free time," Pope states. "And ... that's an important emphasis -- this is non-instructional time."
The attorney explains that the school principal, Cathy Summa, ordered the students to end their Bible reading after one parent complained about the activity. Pope says as a result of the Whitson incident, other children at Karns Elementary have been afraid to even bring their Bibles to school.
