Marylee Shrider: Let the students pass out Bibles
| Friday, Jun 06 2008 08:02 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 06:24 PM
Kern High School District officials take note: If you’re going to violate students’ civil rights, it might be a good idea to dodge the valedictorians and mock-trial champs.
Those kids know their stuff.
One of those kids, 18-year-old Brant Bonetti, called me a week ago Thursday, the day after his graduation from Stockdale High School. A constitutional right has been trampled, he said, apologies and assurances are in order.
He couldn’t be more right.
Seems that Bonetti, the outgoing president of the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes, came up with the idea of giving a Bible to any graduating senior who wanted one. Permission was asked for and received, money raised and Bibles bought.
According to state and district regulations, every student enjoys “the right to distribute publications, printed materials and petitions on school premises, subject to regulations relating to time, place and manner of distribution.”
Yet five minutes into the giveaway, school officials suddenly demanded the group stop handing out the Bibles, by order of the district office.
Seconds later, Bonetti was in the principal's office asking why.
“I told him these Bibles are gifts our club bought for the seniors — that’s allowable,” Bonetti said. “I’m not overly emotional, but I was troubled to say the least.”
Bonetti asked which district official put a stop to the giveaway, but Stockdale officials wouldn’t say. Bonetti returned to his fellow club members moments later, planning his first ever act of peaceful resistance.
“I told my students the school was telling us to leave, but that I was going to stay and continue passing out Bibles and they could stay or go home,” he said. “I told them we were going to be extremely respectful, but this was wrong, morally and constitutionally.”
Bonetti and his fellow students continued to give away Bibles until a school official — after getting “further clarification from district” — closed the box of Bibles and ordered the students off campus. The students, Bonetti said, moved to the parking lot where they “handed Bibles out from the back of a truck.”
It was a disappointing end to an otherwise stellar four years of high school for Bonetti, who, this week, consulted legal counsel on the Bible issue. He didn’t want to leave his school, he said, until he was assured the rights of his fellow students would be upheld.
“I’m not asking for exclusive privilege — it can be a Bible or a Koran and no one is forced to take them,” he said. “Just because someone is offended is not a valid excuse to shoot someone’s rights down. This needs to be resolved.”
And so it will be.
Chagrined district officials said Friday the call to halt the Bible giveaway was a bad one, a “misinterpretation of our own regulation.”
“We have a process whereby students can obtain permission to do this,” said district spokesman John Teves. “These students followed every bit of that process; they did everything the right way for the right reason.”
Teves declined to confirm the identity of the offending official, saying it was an internal personnel matter. He did say that steps would be taken to “make sure all (school) sites and site representatives are aware of this situation and how it should have been interpreted and handled differently.”
Those interested in the identity of the official in question should stay tuned — Kern High School District trustee Chad Vegas, who tends to be rather passionate about such matters, has pledged to bring the issue up at a future board meeting.
Demonstrating the grace he was denied, Bonetti said he harbors no hard feelings for any school official and was satisfied with the district’s promise.
“I’ve appreciated my time at Stockdale immensely, I’m extremely thankful for that,” he said. “At the same time, the way that situation was handled was wrong and I needed to do what I could to make it right.”
Bonetti will soon leave Bakersfield for Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.
I only hope, for their sake, they’re ready for him.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Marylee Shrider, not The Californian. Her column appears Saturdays. Reach her at mshrider@bakersfield.comor 395-7474.
