Gideons barred from school district north of St. Louis

ELSBERRY, Mo. -- A Lincoln County school district said it no longer will allow Gideons International to distribute Bibles to students.

The decision from the Elsberry School District came this week after a parent called the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to complain about students returning home with Bibles. The Gideons had been allowed to make a presentation to fifth-graders and later passed out Bibles to students who asked for them.

The Ida Cannon Middle School principal later issued a statement saying the district -- north of St. Louis -- would not allow such presentations.

Officials with the Gideons could not be reached for comment.

The parent who complained did not want his name revealed. He said his child returned home from school Tuesday with a New Testament from the Gideons, which upset him because he believed it violated the separation of church and state.

Gideons International places Bibles in hotels and prisons and has distributed them at colleges and elementary schools and to members of the military.

Experts have said court decisions generally would allow religious groups to distribute documents in public areas outside a school but not inside it.

"Students are required to go to school and have no choice in the matter and shouldn't be forced to be exposed to religious presentations," said Denise Lieberman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.

Conrad Cheatham, pastor of Elsberry Associate Reform Presbyterian and Mount Zion Associate Reform Presbyterian churches, said he believed the Gideons should be able to distribute Bibles.

"I think the First Amendment gives them the right to distribute Scripture," he said. "Separation of church and state has been badly misconstrued."