ICC Note: A seven-year-old student in California was scolded in front of his class after sharing Bible verses with classmates during his lunch period. Further still, after his mother refused to stop packing the Bible verses with his lunch, the school dispatched a police officer to the parents’ home, to reinforce the school’s sentiment that the Bible verse distribution was not allowed. The religious freedom advocacy group Liberty Counsel is currently representing the family and encouraging this California school district to respect the family’s rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

By Garrett Haley

06/06/2016 United States (Christian News Network) – A seven-year-old first grader was recently reprimanded in front of his entire class and a police officer was dispatched to his family’s home because the child had brought notes with Bible verses on them to school.

Christina and Jaime Zavala live in Palmdale, California. In January, they enrolled their son in the first grade at Desert Rose Elementary School in the Palmdale School District, according to a recent letter from the nonprofit group Liberty Counsel. To encourage her son at school, Christina gave him brief notes to read during lunchtime. Each note included a Bible verse for him to read.

The Zavalas’ son, identified as “C” in the Liberty Counsel’s letter, began telling his classmates about his mother’s encouraging notes and began reading the Bible verses to them. Each day, several students would gather around C to hear the lunchtime notes and Bible verses written by Christina.

“After this had occurred for some time, one friend asked for a copy of the Bible verse, that he, too, could have,” the Liberty Counsel letter explains. “C relayed the request to his mother, who began to send a Bible verse for C, and one for his friend. Soon, five more students asked C for a Bible verse, and C brought additional copies for them, as well. The notes grew to include a short story providing context for the Bible verse, which C would read to the children.”

However, in April, C’s first grade teacher learned of Christina’s note-writing when a girl in her class came up to her one day and said, “Teacher, this is the most beautiful story I have ever seen—C gave it to me.” When the teacher saw that the “beautiful story” on the note was from the Bible, she told C in front of the other students that he was not allowed to share the Bible stories at school but would instead have to stand outside the school gate after the bell rang.

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