The case began last month in the Killeen Independent School District, when the girl started sharing Bible verses printed on small, fortune cookie-sized slips of paper during recess, lunch and after school.
Attorneys with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) say the girl’s principal and teacher confiscated the girl’s Bible verses after first allowing her to distribute them.
According to attorneys, Phylicia Miner, the principal at Cedar Valley Elementary, intervened, reprimanding the student and confiscating her Bible verse materials.
Three days later, on May 15, the principal contacted the student’s mother and told her that the school district policy “prohibits all distribution of religious material on school property at any time.”
In response, the ACLJ sent a demand letter to the school on behalf of the student and her foster mother, citing a landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which declared students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Additionally, the ACLJ referenced 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedents that uphold students’ rights to distribute religious materials during non-instructional time, provided such activities do not disrupt the school environment.
On the final day of the deadline, the district relented, issuing a written response that affirmed the student’s constitutional right to share her Bible verses.