Missouri School Disputes Student's Bible Ban Claim
A Missouri middle school is rejecting claims by a student and his family that the boy had been told to stop reading the Bible by his teacher.
Loyal Grandstaff, a 12-year-old at Bueker Middle School in Marshall, previously claimed that he was reading the Bible in class when he was forced to put the Holy Book away, even though he had only been reading it silently to himself.
Despite claims from the boy and his family, Lance Tobin, principal of Bueker Middle School, recently told The Christian Post that after investigating the matter, administration has deemed the claim to be false.
"The incident was never validated," Tobin told The Christian Post, adding that the original article on the alleged incident came from a local news station, Fox 4 News, that ran the story before the school could investigate.
"Fox 4 News ran the report before we had the chance to look into the incident ourselves," he told CP. "All is good at BMS!"
The original Fox 4 News story quoted Loyal as saying he was now intimidated about reading his Bible in class after being chastised by the teacher. Grandstaff's father added to the local media outlet that he believed his son's First Amendment rights had been violated.
"I like to read my Bible because it's a good book," Loyal previously told the local Fox 4 News Channel.
"I was just reading, just reading because I had free time. A time to do what I wanted to, so I just broke it out and read," he explained.