FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott wrote a letter of complaint July 7 to Superintendent Greg Murry, Conway, Ark. Public Schools, about illegal Gideon bible distributions at Ruth Doyle Intermediate School. According to FFRF’s complainant, the Gideons were positioned outside the cafeteria/auditorium exit where a mandatory assembly was being held. The complainant said several families complained to Assistant Superintendent Carroll Bishop about the Gideons’ presence, and said the response they received was the district “[is] looking into this for the future.”
Murry emailed back to FFRF within hours to say that the district, in response to an earlier complaint, “would discontinue the distribution of Gideon bibles in our district. I have also informed the Gideons of this decision as well.” Elliott noted, “Although it appears that the Conway Public School District reached the decision to bar Gideon bible distribution before receiving FFRF’s letter. This incident demonstrates that concerned families and citizens can effectively, and should, petition school officials to end these unconstitutional practices in their schools.”