Students can leave school to attend Bible classes in church

Public school students from a small town in Virginia can continue to leave school in the middle of the day in order to attend Bible classes. They have been doing this for over 60 yesrs, so it's nothing new. It's just that I had never heard of it before.

Bible Class
Bible Classes Get Blessing of School Board
Staunton Keeps Program But Will Improve Options
By Carol Morello
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 16, 2005; Page B05


Students at public elementary schools in Staunton, Va., can continue to take weekly Bible lessons at a church in the middle of the day, the local School Board has decided, although it left open the door to review its decision next year.

The 5 to 1 decision Monday night was a compromise crafted to satisfy parents who want their children released from school for the 30-minute religious classes and those who do not want their children waiting idly until their classmates return or stigmatized for staying behind.

The board authorized the midday release program for the upcoming school year but promised to provide "educationally meaningful opportunities" for students who do not attend and to send teachers to workshops to develop instructional techniques for the period. It also said it would revisit the issue in a year.

As I mentioned, this is a small town, population 24,000, with 75 churches. So it appears that religion is important there.

I see nothing inherently wrong with this policy, as long as other religions are equally accomodated.

Sounds like the kids who don't attend the church stay in school? That makes the church class part of school. Hardly equal treatment for atheists, for example. They should be 'released', too.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
Sounds like the kids who don't attend the church stay in school? That makes the church class part of school. Hardly equal treatment for atheists, for example. They should be 'released', too.

How so? these kids are going for religous study and are not 'released'.
if your atheist, you dont believe in God, thus you dont need to attend bible study. its not like these kids are going home or anything.

The ones that don't attend have the benefit of "educationally meaningful opportunities".

I'm wondering if they give muslim students time to achieve their 5 times/day prayers. Or if they are using publicly-funded transportation to bus the Christians to class.

Originally posted by XphilesPhan
How so? these kids are going for religous study and are not 'released'.

If they're not 'released' from school, then the religious classes are, by definition, part of the school curriculum.

if your atheist, you dont believe in God, thus you dont need to attend bible study. its not like these kids are going home or anything.

It doesn't matter where they're going. If the school lets out some kids in the middle of the day (for whatever reason) and not others, that is unequal treatment. It can't be both ways. Either the religious studies are part of school or not.

From the original source:

The 5 to 1 decision Monday night was a compromise crafted to satisfy parents who want their children released from school for the 30-minute religious classes

If the religious kids are released from school, then all children should be released from school or else they're giving religious kids special treatment.

Needless to say, if I had children in school in the area I would be one fighting against it. And I think it's wrong to intermingle religious studies with public school (The school seems to be sanctioning one particular religion), but I have a feeling in years to come, this will be completely voted down.

Couldn't the church move these classes to Wednesday after school or something?

I hope somebody sues this sorry peace of # excuse for a school, I mean, if christian kids can get out of school, then I want to claim to be a satanist and be let out of school to sacrafice a goat