School calls police to stop 7-year-old kid from sharing Bible verses

A Los Angeles deputy sheriff was reportedly sent by Desert Rose Elementary School on May 9 to visit the house of a seven-year-old student for sharing Bible verses with other children at school.

"The deputy sheriff said he had been sent by the school," Liberty Counsel Attorney Richard Mast told Fox News.

Mast added, "The deputy went on to tell the parents that the school was worried that someone might be offended by the Bible verses."

The sheriff's office has yet to provide an official statement on the matter as Superintendent of Palmdale School District Raul Maldonado only responded that "the District is not yet clear as to the specific nature of that engagement," although they confirmed that the sheriff has made the visit.

The boy and his parents Jaime and Christina Zavala are represented by the Liberty Counsel, a non-profit litigation, education, and policy organization that works for religious freedom. The organization sent a letter addressed to Maldonado on May 24 citing the school's act as "unconstitutional suppression and censorship of student religious speech."

The first grader, identified only as C, has gained attention from his friends at school with the encouraging notes containing Bible verses that his mother packed alongside his lunch. His friends requested for their own Bible verses so the boy's mother made more copies for him to give out at school.

On April 18, a teacher restricted the handout only at the school gate and after classes as she cited separation of church and state. C was also reprimanded in two instances in front of the whole class and sent home in tears.

Hours before the sheriff made a visit at 4:30 p.m., Principal Melanie Pagliaro completely banned the Bible-sharing which she said was against school policy, seeing how children still crowded over the Bible notes at the school gate after the bell rang.

In their letter, the Legal Counsel refuted the erroneous interpretation of the Establishment Clause and cited the "Students' Freedom of Speech/Expression" where students have the right to exercise their rights including distribution of printed materials so long as these are not obscene, libelous, or such.

The letter defined the hand-outs occurring during "non-instructional times" to classmates who were "free to accept or refuse, at their own discretion" and even to some "who had specifically requested them from him."