Should schools allow religious texts to be offered to their students?

A pagan woman in South Carolina was upset that her daughter's school allowed the distribution of bibles, but not her spell books. (iStockphoto)A pagan mother in South Carolina is prompting her local school board to reevaluate its policies regarding religious texts, after trying to offer spell books to students.

According to Fox News, Ginger Strivelli, who practices witchcraft, said she was upset when her 12-year-old daughter came home from North Windy Ridge intermediate school with a bible.

Gideon International had distributed the books, and school officials let interested students take copies for themselves.

But when Strivelli came to the school with a box of spell books, she was turned away.

The Buncombe County Board of Education is expected to address the issue at its next meeting in February.

"You can either open your public school up to all religious material, or you can say no religious material," Michael Broyde, a professor and senior fellow at Emory University's Center for the Study of Law and Religion, told Fox News.

Bibles distributed by the Gideons also made a stir in Charlottetown this week. A parent received a notice from the school asking him to fill out a form if he wanted his daughter to opt out of getting a bible from The Gideons.

"I'll be held responsible for my child's belief system, not the schools," Michael Arsenault told CBC News Tuesday.

In a statement to CBC News from Gideons, spokesman Kelvin Warkentin said it is entirely up to school boards whether to accept the Bibles, that it is not their philosophy to force the issue, and they do not view continuing the distribution as a right.

Should schools allow religious texts to be offered to their students? If the Gideons are allowed to offer Bibles, should the North Carolina woman be allowed to offer spell books? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.


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