LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky school board has upheld its decision to prohibit ministers from visiting students at school during lunch despite protests from a local church.
Pastors from Little Flock Baptist Church outside Louisville said for 17 years the school system had allowed students to request that their ministers eat lunch with them at school, but in January Bullitt County School Superintendent Michael Eberbaugh instructed schools to end the visits.
“The Kentucky Education Reform Act says our responsibility as community members is to mentor the children and provide good examples and leadership for them, and so that’s what we were doing when we were at the schools,” said Zach Montroy, communications director at Little Flock Church. “We weren’t evangelizing and we weren’t passing out literature. We weren’t praying with the students. We were simply there to be their friends and mentors.”
Montroy said the church received a letter from Larry Belcher, principal of Hebron Middle School, backing up the church’s claims and confirming the school had no problems with the pastors.
The Bullitt County school system’s policy states “students are not permitted to bring guests or visitors to school without permission from the principal.”
The ministers said they had been accustomed to signing in and out as visitors each time they had lunch with the students.
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