Florida Teacher Bans Bible During Free-Time Reading

by JASmius

Well, obviously it wasn't "free" time reading after all:

A Florida schoolteacher is under fire after telling one of her students he was not allowed to read the Bible during "free reading" time.

Fifth-grader Giovanni Rubeo wanted to read his Bible during a 90-minute period in which students were allowed to read a book of their choice, reports the Liberty Institute, which has taken on the case.

When Swornia Thomas, Rubeo's teacher at Park Lakes Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale, noticed he was reading the Bible, she told him to stop reading it and put it away. Rubeo asked his teacher to call his father, Paul Rubeo, about what had taken place.  

"I noticed that he [Giovanni] has a book — a religious book — in the classroom. He's not permitted to read those books in my classroom," Thomas said on a voice mail left for Rubeo's father on the day of the April 8 incident.

"He said if I told him to put it away, you said not to do that," Thomas continued. "Please give me a call, I need to have some understanding on direction to him about the book he's reading as opposed to the curriculum for public school."

Paul Rubeo reached out to the principal at the school, Orinthia Dias, who then got the school's legal department involved. No one would say that Rubeo's son had the right to read the Bible in the classroom, so he contacted the Liberty Institute, an organization dedicated to defending religious freedom in America, about the situation.

The Liberty Institute has demanded that the school allow Rubeo to read his Bible in the classroom during open periods reserved for reading.

"Banning religious books like the Bible violates Giovanni's civil rights to religious free speech and free exercise and exemplifies the hostility to religion that the United States Supreme Court has condemned," the Liberty Institute wrote in a letter to Broward County Public Schools.

"We therefore demand that, within ten (10) days of this letter, Broward County Public Schools give Giovanni a written apology for these violations and agree to permit students to read religious books, including the Bible, during free reading times.

"Absent such written apology and assurance that students in Broward County Public Schools may read religious books like the Bible during free reading times, our client is prepared to take legal action against Broward County Public Schools seeking all appropriate and available relief in order to preserve Giovanni's constitutional and statutory rights under federal and Florida law."

Four thoughts about this incident:

1) Good for the Rubeos.

2) In order for Congress to make no law respecting an establishment of religion, it does not have to prohibit the free exercise thereof; and even if it did, little Giovanni can't "establish" anything by his free exercise.

3) "Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.  And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply.  But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they began to confer with one another, saying, 'What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.  But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name.” And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.  But Peter and John answered and said to them, 'Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you [or the Broward County Public Schools] rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.'” - Acts 4:13-20

All little Giovanni was doing was....reading.

4) Change one word in that story - "Quran" for "Bible" - and ask yourself if this would even be a story.

Sorry, trick question - the Quran is doubtless already part of little Giovanni's regular "Social Studies" homework.