Parent protests school's Bible giveaway

By Associated Press

For the AJC

LEXINGTON, Ga. -- The parent of an Oglethorpe County elementary school student is complaining after his daughter came home from school with a Bible.

Peter Wiley says that fifth-grade students were told at the end of the school day they could pick up the pocket-sized Bibles from a table set up by two members of an evangelical group.

He calls it "an egregious thing of crossing the line of church and state."

School principal Kim Lord says that the school didn't require students to take the Bible home and that the exchange didn't take place during the school day. She says it was "as if they were picking up a pamphlet for parks and rec or any other activity."

Debra Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Georgia, said the school was not doing anything illegal unless it denied the same privilege to other religious groups.