This article was originally published in Kansas Reflector.
TOPEKA — A Kansas elementary school principal who invited an evangelical Christian missionary to pass out Bibles to students during their recess in May violated the First Amendment, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas warned Monday in a letter to the district.
Katie Struebing, the principal of East Elementary School in the roughly 2,000-person city of Belleville, invited a member of the evangelical Christian organization Gideons International, Ben Dreesen, to hand out Bibles to students during recess on May 7, wrote Monica Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, in the Monday letter. Gideons International is often credited with the introduction of Bibles to American hotel rooms.
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Ahead of Dreesen’s visit, Struebing told staff that she would visit classrooms at the roughly 250-student school to inform students of “the nice man” handing out Bibles, according to the letter . A student’s parents informed the ACLU about Dreesen’s visit.