Students in an Arkansas school district have been banned from meeting with youth ministers during school hours, ending a practice that's been a tradition in many Southern states for years.
A Wisconsin foundation successfully halted the visits — at least temporarily — by threatening to sue, saying the ministers’ visits are “predatory.”
Conway Public School Superintendent Greg Murry told
Fox News that the district has temporarily stopped allowing youth pastors and other faith-based leaders from visiting, and is reviewing the policy.
In its letter, The Freedom from Religion Foundation said allowing ministers on school property to “befriend and proselytize students during the school day on school property” is “inappropriate and unconstitutional.”
Murry said the district has hired Liberty Institute, a law firm that handles religious liberty cases, to help with the complaint and to investigation the issues regarding equal access for visitors to the school.
“We want to do what’s right and what’s legal, Murry told Fox. "We also understand in our community it’s certainly by and large a very acceptable thing for this to happen.”
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