Pagan mom outraged after school gives son Bible

Ginger Strivelli is a different kind of Bible-thumper: The self-proclaimed pagan would like to smack school officials for giving her son access to a copy of the good book.

“It’s totally inappropriate they think they can get away with this,” an angry Strivelli told the Asheville Citizen-Times after her fifth-grade son came home with a Bible.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable, and their attitude is ridiculous.”

The scripture showdown began when Strivelli’s son came back to her Weaverville, N.C., home after school on Monday carring a copy of the Bible.

School officials say the books, sent by a local branch of Gideons International, were placed in the main office at North Windy Ridge intermediate school for any interested students to grab a copy.

School spokeswoman Jan Blunt said students were not told or even encouraged to take the Bibles.

The people who provide the religious books “don’t talk with students,” she said. “They’re not allowed to make a presentation. They quite literally drop off a box and leave them there.”

Strivelli — who said school officials were not sympathetic to her complaint — insisted that her son was told by a teacher that the books were available at the office.

And the fifth-grader was handed his copy of the Bible by another teacher, Strivelli said.

The angry parent said her venom wasn’t directed at Christians, but at religions in general.

“I would be just as angry if it had been Jewish, Hindu, pagan or Muslim,” she told the North Carolina newspaper.

But North Windy Ridge principal Jackie Byerly said any group interested in distributing material the same way would receive approval to do so.

via Pagan mom outraged after school gives son Bible – NY Daily News.