Essay on religious freedom. (Making a Difference).(charter school yields to media pressure regarding case of student wanting to make presenation on the Bible, Colorado)

Elizabeth Johnson, 11, attends Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette, Colorado. Shortly before Christmas last year, the sixth-grader, along with her classmates, was assigned an oral report on a book of her choice. Elizabeth, a member of the First Baptist Church in Broomfield, likes the Bible, so opted to share the book of Exodus with her class. She insists that she was not trying to push her religion on the other students, but simply wanted to describe how Moses "rescued the slaves, and how he was born."

Her teachers promptly vetoed the choice, allegedly telling her that the Bible might be "offensive" to children of different religious faiths. An attorney for the Boulder Valley School District insisted that the rejection was not based on religious considerations, but rather on a concern that the Bible would not meet the assignment's requirement that students describe their book's protagonist and setting, and discuss the relationship between the picture on the cover and the plot.

Following a discussion with Kathleen Johnson, Elizabeth's mother, Peak to Peak middle school Principal Bernita Grove agreed to modify the ground rules to allow the girl to prepare a written report, but not deliver an oral one in class as other students would do. That, Elizabeth told Denver's Rocky Mountain News for December 13th, was "definitely" discrimination.

When ...