School warns parents about Bible giveaway

The "phone tree" message began just like any other: "Good evening, this is Sean Gallagher, principal of Beverly High School with a brief announcement."

The principal explained to parents that members of the Gideons International group plan to give away Bibles in front of two schools in Beverly, Mass.

"The superintendent of schools and the Beverly police were contacted by the Gideons International organization and informed they plan on distributing free Bibles outside of Briscoe Middle School and Beverly High School sometime this fall," the recorded message said.

"This distribution will not occur on school property. This organization plans on distributing the Bibles on public sidewalks and walkways and the school administration will be notified only on the day of the distribution."

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Then Gallagher got to the heart of the message – a suggestion that parents counsel their children on what to do.

“I encourage you to discuss this scenario with your son or daughter and determine how you wish them to handle the situation. Thank you and have a great night,” said the message.

Over the past three years, a variety of other groups have stood in front of the Beverly schools to give out subject matter regarding other causes, but never before have school officials provided such a warning to parents.

Beverly School Superintendent James Hayes says the alarm was raised over the Bible handout because of where it will happen.

"We received a notice from the Gideons and I have a letter here, that specifically says their intention is to hand them out to high school students and middle school students," Hayes confirmed in an interview.

"It's not simply in some other public place; it clearly is near the school. They'll be confronting students and trying to pass out the Gideon Bibles," he warned.

"Our reason for emphasizing that is only to make sure that students have some forethought as to how to deal with that interaction," Hayes said. "I wouldn't want there to be some difficult situation for kids that they're caught by surprise. So that's purely the reason why – that know how to graciously deal with that situation."

He conceded he was unfamiliar with the Gideons' practice of offering Bibles to students in a non-confrontational manner; essentially making them available to students who express an interest.

But he didn't change his position, and said preparations are needed for such an occasion.

"It's not that we're anticipating any particular problem; it's just that it's a very unusual circumstance for kids as they normally go about their business every day of coming to school – to be encountered with some unusual event," he said.

"They're middle school kids and they're high school kids and so it's simply to help them anticipate and so their parents can help them anticipate in that interaction on how to deal with it. That's all," he said.

"We try to do a similar thing sometimes when the media outlets are out on the public ways. Let's say that one of the Boston media channels are there and they're filming kids and interviewing kids," Hayes said. "That's an incredibly unusual event and these are young kids. We just want them to be better prepared as to how to deal with that graciously and not to get rattled. We don't them to say, 'Oh my, what do I do?' or, 'What have I done?'

"These are kids; these are impressionable kids, and that's all," he said.

As the notice from principal Sean Gallagher made clear, the distribution is planned for the public sidewalk and the Gideons had no legal obligation to notify the school. But it is the policy of the Gideons to provide a courtesy notification.

The superintendent said that his actions would be the same if he knew of a coming event by a Muslim group.

"As I've just described, any unusual event that we're aware of," he said.

However, he provided no explanation for why a Bible distribution is an "unusual event."

Gideons have placed the Bible in 190 nations in 93 different languages.

The organization focuses on hotels, motels, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, colleges, universities, the military, law enforcement, prisons and jails.

"The demand for Scriptures in these areas far exceeds our supplies that we are able to purchase through our donations," the group said. "Much more could be done – if funds were available. However, we are placing and distributing more than one million copies of the Word of God, at no cost, every seven days."

The Gideons International is the oldest Christian business and professional men's association in the U.S.