Public schools target of Gideons’ proselytizing

Stacy J. Willis

Tuesday, March 16, 1999 | 11:25 a.m.

When Rabbi Mel Hecht's eighth-grade daughter repeatedly was offered a Gideons Bible by a man on the street last week, she was barely out of the shadow of her public school.

Gideons, an international Christian group, has targeted several Clark County schools as plum places to proselytize. Standing on the sidewalk in front of Becker Middle School in Summerlin, members of Gideons offered Bibles to students as soon as the schoolchildren stepped off campus into the public domain.

Although Hecht's Jewish daughter told the Christian "no thank you," the Bible-offerer walked beside her for a few paces and asked her to take the Bible three more times, Hecht said.

"I have nothing against Bibles," Hecht said. "But this is not the appropriate place for this, and it is inappropriate for this age of student to have to deal with this. Children are conditioned and expected to show respect to adults. They are already pre-disposed to accepting the adult's message."

The Gideons' presence outside schools has raised the ire of some parents, the legal acumen of the school district and the apprehension of civil libertarians who are becoming wary of proselytizers' focus on public schools.

"Every so often the Gideons may make it 'hit the schools month' I guess," said Edward Goldman, assistant superintendent of schools.

"I think they target students because it's easy pickings. There are a lot of people in one spot. And they may think that kids are easily influenced."

District officials and ACLU representatives agree that as long as the Gideons stay on the public sidewalk they are not breaking any church-state laws. Instead, they are exercising their right to free speech, Goldman said.

But Hecht, rabbi at Temple Beth Am, says the school district has a "responsibility" to protect students from such influences on their way to and from school.

"I believe the district is wrong," Hecht said. "The issue is not free speech. It's the welfare of our children. As easily as it is Gideons, it could be white supremacists or some other group pushing literature on our kids. The district has a responsibility here.

"When there is a fight between two students off campus, down the road, administrators will break it up even though it's off campus. This is the same thing," Hecht said.

Goldman disagreed.

"The law says the district has authority over (students) but not a responsibility for them on their way to and from school," Goldman said. "That's why administrators can discipline them for fighting but can't be responsible for how they receive Gideons on public property."

The Gideons organization, which declined comment, has been targeting public schools for several years. Last week Gideons members approached the school district and asked for permission to distribute Bibles to students who were busing from one campus to another for a special science program.

"They came and asked what the district's position would be if they handed out Bibles to kids as they stepped off of the school bus on a public street on their way to the school," Goldman said. "And I told them no because that's still in the middle of their school day, they're just crossing public property. And the Gideons complied."

The Gideons organization is not alone in targeting kids at public schools as potential religious converts.

Last week Cornerstone Christian Fellowship sponsored a performance on four school campuses that included an invitation to church along with an entertaining weight-lifting show and an anti-drugs message.

District officials said the secular performance by the Christian evangelist Power Team was not a violation of constitutional law, which prohibits the government or its agencies from establishing a religion.

But local civil libertarians said the distribution of fliers that invited students to church constituted proselytizing and was "blatantly unconstitutional." "It's just totally inappropriate," said Susan Boswell, executive director of the local chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice. "The school just isn't the venue for that kind of proselytizing."

"It's completely outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional for students in a public school to be invited to a church at an assembly during school hours," said Mel Lipman, a state ACLU board member and attorney.

But the school-focus of religious organizations does not trouble the principal of Cimarron-Memorial High, the school at which the fliers were distributed.

Principal Ken Bedrosian said his school also has been the subject of Gideons Bible-offerers.

"I suppose even the centuries-old Catholic Church relies on the recruitment of kids -- they get them when they're young," Bedrosian said. "And today, churches are very linked to the community. Some churches are using school buildings as their places of worship on weekends.

"It's really not that unusual to see church information at school anymore. It's a sign of the times, and it's not surprising or shocking to me," Bedrosian said.

But, he said, had he known that Cornerstone Christian Fellowship was going to distribute fliers, he would have prevented it.

The school district, however, stands by its position that there was nothing unconstitutional about the Christian evangelists' performance nor distribution of fliers at schools -- much to the chagrin of civil libertarians.

"The district should publicly take a position that says, 'Hey, we screwed up by letting these people on campus, and we won't do it again,' " Lipman said. "They have a right to stand on the public sidewalk but not do it on campus.

"Clark County School District should acknowledge that it was inappropriate to let this one group on campus, and it should advise its administrators that it should never happen again.

"Schools are not a place for proselytizing," Lipman said.