How Bibles at a Kansas elementary school created a hidden hero

A parent stood up for the First Amendment after a Bible distribution at an elementary school, writes our columnist. (Eric Thomas for Kansas Reflector)

Today, I offer a story for you to read to your children and grandchildren:

Once upon a time, there was a small town.

And in that small town, there was a small school.

And in that small school, there was a single person. And, while that single person might not know it, they made a big difference.

We know the name of this small town. It’s Belleville, a small town in Kansas. But it’s barely in Kansas. If you drove 15 minutes north from Belleville, you wouldn’t be in Kansas at all. You would be in an even smaller town, named Chester, Nebraska.

We know the name of the small school. It’s East Elementary, a school that is probably just like the school where you attend classes. The school has slides on its playground, tornado drills during the school day and drivers for its school buses.

What we don’t know is this: the name of one brave parent.

Even though we don’t know this parent’s name, we do know their story.

Last school year, the principal of East Elementary invited a person to the school to visit with students and hand out Bibles. The principal visited classrooms, telling students that the visitor was a “nice man” who would be handing out Bibles.

In case you don’t know, the Bible is the sacred story of the Christian religion. Some people in East Elementary and Belleville and Kansas and all over the world believe deeply in the message of the Bible.

In fact, some people believe so strongly in it that they hand out Bibles in unusual places. Maybe you have been to a hotel with your parents and found the drawers empty, except for a Bible in the bedside table. Or, maybe you were in the waiting room for the doctor and saw a Bible sitting on a table. Or maybe you were on the street and someone walked up to you with a Bible.

Many of those Bibles are from the same group that was handing out Bibles at East Elementary School on this day in May.

During recess on that day, many students received Bibles. The principal also stayed near the man who was handing out Bibles. The adults working at the school must have also been OK with it. No one stepped in to stop it. So, a “nice man” who believes deeply in the Bible handed the book to kids, fifth graders and younger.

To many people, having this man and his Bibles in school is confusing.

Why are some people uncomfortable with Bibles in school? They are thinking about our American freedoms.

Short history lesson: Many of these freedoms come from the words in the Constitution. If you ask me, the most important ones of all come from one specific part called the First Amendment. This part of the Constitution gives us the freedom to say how we feel. The freedom to tell stories like this one. The freedom to choose our own friends. The freedom to protest.

Those Bibles in school make people think about another First Amendment right. The freedom to choose our religion — or no religion at all.

Our country’s laws say students, while they are at school, must be free from pressure to be religious. People who work for the government, like the principal, must avoid using schools as a place to pressure those students about religion. Also, very young students, like the elementary school in Belleville, must be even more distant from religious pressure.

Let’s get back to that nameless parent. What was the small thing that the parent did? And why was it such a big deal?

What that parent did was simple and enormous at the same time. They spoke up.

The parent was at East Elementary and saw the Bibles being handed out that day. Because they understood all of those American freedoms, they reported the mistake to a famous group of lawyers , and that group of lawyers made sure people all around Kansas heard about the mistake. The school district completed an investigation . Kansas Reflector reporter Anna Kaminski and others wrote stories that thousands of people will read.

That single voice made a big difference. Through this situation, thousands of people will get a reminder about what is OK and not OK. Many people will have talks about what is legal and illegal. And many adults will get a reminder about what they can and cannot do. A big difference indeed.

When one group of adults isn’t looking out for your American rights, another group might be close by, poised to protect you. After all, sometimes adults make mistakes. And sometimes the only person watching is another adult.

We, as adults, should be there with our brave voices. After all, we constantly tell you to listen to adults. And trust adults. And obey adults. We find lots of ways to say it. We say, “Respect your elders,” or, “Listen to your teachers,” or, “You need to learn to obey.” Should we expect 10-year-old children to know and protect their First Amendment rights? Nope, that is a job for adults like this heroic parent. (Or perhaps the teachers should have stepped in.)

Sure, in some situations, students — especially students in high school and college — speak up on their own. They see mistakes that adults make in schools and they speak up. Maybe someday, you will be the strong voice when you see an adult do something wrong in your school.

I love stories starring students with brave voices. I think they are so great that I have a whole list of them. A student who heard about kids being beaten up and wrote a story about it . A group of students who spoke up about the lies told by their newly hired principal . A student who found the embarrassing truth of the person her school was named for. A student who sued her school for not allowing her to cover an important story. These students acted as boldly as adults when they spoke up.

Some people might say it’s OK to speak up when you see something wrong. Me? I say it’s heroic to speak up. A brave voice makes a big difference.

All of this, because one parent spoke up.

Note: Gideons International did not respond to a request for comment.

Eric Thomas teaches visual journalism and photojournalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here .