Texas school district backtracks, will let student share Bible verses during non-instructional time
June 16, 2025
A Texas school district has reversed its decision to prohibit a fifth grade student with special needs from sharing Bible verses with her classmates.
The Christian Post reports that the case originated in the Killeen Independent School District when the girl began sharing Bible verses printed on small strips of paper during recess, lunch and after school.
According to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the girl’s principal and teacher confiscated her Bible verses after first allowing her to share them.
The verses were printed on fortune cookie-sized strips of paper and included passages like Romans 12:2, which urges Christians “not to be conformed to this world,” and Psalm 112:7, which states, “They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”
Last month, Phylicia Miner, the principal at Cedar Valley Elementary, stepped in and reprimanded the student while confiscating her materials.
The ACLJ says that 3 days later, the principal contacted the student’s mother and informed her that school district policy “prohibits all distribution of religious material on school property at any time.”
According to the Christian Post, sent a demand letter to the school district, citing the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case.
In that case, the court declared that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
On the final day of the deadline in the ACLJ’s demand letter, the school district relented and released a written response affirming the student’s right to share her Bible verses.
In that response, the school district’s general counsel wrote: “I discussed with the principal that a student may distribute religious material during non-instructional time, when the distribution does not interfere with work in the classroom. … The principal assured me that she understood and confirmed that [KISD] Board policy will be followed in the future.”
Photo: top, Credit: Courtesy ACLJ