New Orleans, USA - The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday filed its fifth religion-related lawsuit in 13 years against an eastern Louisiana school district, this time alleging that a principal improperly allowed people to distribute Bibles to students.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of the parents of a fifth-grader at Loranger Middle School in Tangipahoa Parish, who were upset that Gideons Bibles were being given to students on school property during class hours.
"School officials in Tangipahoa Parish habitually show disdain for the Constitution, while disrespecting the right of parents, who happen to be Catholic in this case, to choose the religious tradition in which to raise their children," said Joe Cook, the ACLU executive director for Louisiana.
The ACLU identified the student under the pseudonym Jane Roe because her family feared retaliation from school officials, Cook said.
The lawsuit details an instance in which the girl's class was told by their teacher to pick up their New Testament Bibles in front of the school office. The girl ended up in a line with the entire fifth grade, while two men handed each student a Bible and said, "God bless you."
"With her classmates and teachers looking on, Jane accepted the Bible out of a feeling of coercion and fear that she would be criticized, ridiculed and ostracized," Cook wrote in a statement about the lawsuit.
People can hand out Bibles as long as they don't do it on school grounds and during school hours, Cook said.
Phone messages left with Loranger Middle School principal Andre Pellerin and acting Superintendent Mark Kolwe were not returned.
The ACLU has sued the parish school board on several previous occasions, including over the schools allowing a minister — the so-called pizza preacher — to give out pizza and teach Christianity on school grounds during lunch periods.
Most of the claims in the previous lawsuits have been settled, but the school system has appealed a judge's ruling that Christian prayers at school board meetings were unconstitutional. Oral arguments are scheduled Tuesday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.