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The good news: the Gideon Society will no longer have a monopoly to distribute religious materials in public schools under the District School Board of Niagara.
The bad news: rather than stopping the practice, the DSBN has opened the doors to other faith groups to follow the Gideons' lead.
As the St. Catharines Standard reports, under new DSBN rules, principals and the director of education can now approve the distribution of materials from groups of any religion, not just Christian bibles from the Gideons.
"In Paolo Miele's view, there's no place for religion in the public school system.
Handing out bibles, Korans, Torahs or any type of religious material to students should not be permitted, said Miele, whose two daughters attend Virgil School.
But a revamped District School Board of Niagara policy will not allow any kind of religious book or pamphlet to be distributed through schools to students, barring the approval of the director of education, school principals and parent groups.
The materials would not be used for classroom teaching, but for personal use.
The old board rule, which dated back to 1998, granted permission only to Gideons International in Canada to offer New Testaments to Grade 5 pupils who wished to have them in schools -- if principals and parents agreed. About half of the board's 97 schools offered Bibles to students.
But Miele said any kind of religious item does not belong in a public school."
A board spokesperson said that the change was made to make the policy more inclusive:
A board spokesperson said that the change was made to make the policy more inclusive:
"Board spokeswoman Kim Yielding, who chairs the DSBN's policy advisory committee, said the policy change was made to be more inclusive of all religions.
The idea was to create a more equitable process to give all religious organizations a chance to hand out their materials through schools, Yielding said.
"Looking at diversity in our community, and we are in an inclusive environment. We realized that we wanted to take a look at the policy to reflect the community that we live in," Yielding said."
Reports on the rule change do not make any mention of why the Board decided it would be appropriate to hand out religious materials in public schools in the first place.
The full article can be read here: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/A...aspx?e=2466017
Reports on the rule change do not make any mention of why the Board decided it would be appropriate to hand out religious materials in public schools in the first place.
The full article can be read here: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/A...aspx?e=2466017
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