Judge Grants Injunction Allowing Child's Recess Bible Reading and Sharing
By Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
March 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - A federal judge has ordered an elementary school in Knoxville, Tennessee, to stop prohibiting a fifth-grade student from reading his Bible with a friend during recess.
Luke Whitson and his parents had filed a motion for preliminary injunction against Knox County School District officials for threatening to punish the fifth grader for reading his Bible during recess at Karns Elementary School. According to press reports, Knox County Schools officials had argued that Bible reading jeopardizes student safety. They also contended that recess is not "free time," and therefore school officials can prohibit Bible reading during that period of the day.
After trying unsuccessfully to resolve their dispute with the school over the unconstitutional policy through legal counsel, the Whitsons, represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), filed suit. They contended that school officials, acting "under the authority and weight of the government" were denying a ten-year-old student's rights by refusing to allow him "merely to read his Bible and discuss passages found therein with a friend during recess time at school."
The case, Whitson v. Knox County Board of Education, was filed June 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. The request for injunctive relief for Luke Whitson and his family argued that the protection of the fifth grader's "fundamental constitutional rights is clearly in the best interest of the public and will cause no harm to the school's ability to fulfill its education mission."
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/242006b.asp
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