Bible distribution at Missouri schools

A long held practice in South Iron Elementary School in Annapolis, MO., 120 miles south of St. Louis, was to distribute bibles to grade school students each year. Parents had raised complaints about the effort in 2005, and the school had voted to allow the distribution to continue anyway.

In February of 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of four sets of parents who said the district should be stopped from "endorsing religion." The parents said that they didn't want to school telling their children what their religious beliefs should be because they felt that should be done at home.

After one court upheld an injunction until trial, a three judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July of this year that classroom distribution would be prohibited.

A law group out of Florida who represented the school district says the appeals court ruling concerned a practice no longer in existence.

The current policy, according to the representative, is to allow people and groups to distribute literature, with district approval, before or after school or during lunch break, but not in the classroom. The new policy is open to religious groups beyond Gideon, the original distributor, and is the subject of a pending court ruling at the district level.

If it is open to all religious groups, do you all think that would suffice? I think it would have to be expanded to groups beyond religious groups to give fair access to everyone and to not be "narrowly" drawn.

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/sns-ap-mo--biblesforkids,0,3714930.story