In Ohio, a student put up Bible verses in the hallways of her high school in response to gay pride flags displayed by a pro-LGBT group.
Subsequently, she was suspended.
According to Gabby Helsinger, she was pulled from class and punished with in-school suspension for the misdeed.
As reported by The Hill, the school accused Gabby of “targeting” the Gay-Straight Alliance club.
Last week, she posted a video to Facebook explaining her actions, meant to “spread the word of God” in response to gay flags and posters:
“I felt the need to write down some Bible verses so I could put them around my school. And I wrote them down and I put them around the lockers, the walls.”
Later that day, she saw Lebanon High School teachers removing them.
“The next day, I got called to the office and there is a letter that says that I have an ISS, which is an in-school suspension, and the reason why I have it is because ‘abuse of others, disrespect, rudeness’ because I put Bible verses up ‘targeting the GSA organization. I did not know what the GSA organization was or meant.”
In the video, she said students at her school needed help:
“They don’t need to be living in the confusion of wondering if they should be gay, bi, lesbian, trans — anything like that. And I know that God is the only way that they can be healed by that, and that’s why I did it.”
As per her account, she was asked by the principal, Scott Butler, whether she had permission to hang the scriptures. She didn’t know she needed it.
School Superintendent Todd Yohel told Faithwire exhibiting religious expression on school grounds isn’t against policy.
But in the video, Gabby claimed there’s a bias against faith:
“[E]very time Jesus or God or anything like that gets brought up in school, it gets taken down straight away. But we can put gay and Pride stuff all over the school and not have to take it down.”
Fox News asked the principal for comment. All they got was this:
“We do not publicly discuss the discipline of individual students. In general, when a student violates the Student Code of Conduct, there are consequences for those actions.”
Are schools prone to favor gay organizations over religious ones? Public institutions are overseen by the government, which — in Boston — allowed a Pride flag but not a Christian one (here). In New Jersey and California, schools are ordered to teach homosexual history (here). Trump favors Bible classes (here), but — as per the ACLU — the Constitution requires any kind of scripture in public schools to remain in a secular context. That appears reasonable, but what of the gay studies? What do you do when religious order and secularism oppose one another in the public square? It seems to me that you give everyone a voice. Gabby believes hers was silenced.
Watch her video below.
-Alex
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