The Freedom From Religion Foundation forced the Crockett County Schools system to clarify its policy on bible distributions at a district elementary school, and has also had it remove a post from an official social media account showing students receiving those bibles during the school day.

FFRF learned that Gadsden Elementary School (in Gadsden, Tenn.) permitted Gideons International to distribute bibles to students on school grounds due to a post on the district’s official Facebook page. The post, which featured multiple students’ unobscured faces with bibles, read, “Thank you Mr Benny, along with the Gideons, for presenting bibles to our 5th graders this morning!!”

FFRF spoke up on behalf of the students — and their right to be free from religious coercion.

“By allowing Gideons International to distribute bibles to students at school during the school day, Crockett County Schools displays blatant favoritism for religion over nonreligion and Christianity above all other faiths,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Charlotte R. Gude wrote to the district. 

FFRF pointed out that when school staff encourage young students to take bibles, they risk unconstitutionally coercing students to take, read and reflect upon literature of a particular religious background. Students who see their peers taking bibles at the encouragement of authority figures will no doubt feel pressured to take a bible to fit in. A district social media page promoting Christianity also sends the message about favoring Christianity to students and community members — needlessly marginalizing all students and families who do not subscribe to Christian beliefs. As much as 38 percent of the American population is non-Christian, including the almost 30 percent who are atheists, agnostics or nothing in particular. 

Thanks to FFRF, the district has now been set on the right course.

Crockett County Schools Director Phillip A. Pratt sent an email to FFRF confirming that the district has addressed policies of social media and acceptable use of the district website. The district has also removed the original post of the event, and has assured FFRF that the district went over acceptable class time use policies with staff.

“Distribution of bibles or other religious proselytizing materials as part of the public school day is unconstitutional as well as predatory,” notes FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “We parents teach our children not to take gifts from strangers, and then the Gideon Society takes advantage of a captive audience of school children to proselytize. Schools cannot and must not allow this.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 42,000 members across the country, including hundreds of members in Oklahoma. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

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