Pagan mother's fury after son brings home Bible from school but witchcraft books are banned



Anger: Ginger Strivelli was turned away when she tried to bring spell books to the school

A school is being accused of not letting students practice religious freedom after they refused to let a pagan student's mother give out spell books, despite allowing bibles to be distributed.

Ginger Strivelli, from North Carolina, who practices Witchcraft, a form of Paganism, said she was upset when her 12-year-old son came home from North Windy Ridge intermediate school with a Bible.

She challenged the school about distributing the books, which were donated by the local Gideon group, and has prompted the Buncombe County Board of Education to reevaluate its policies regarding religious texts.



The Gideons International had delivered several boxes of the sacred books to the school office. The staff allowed interested students to stop by and pick them up.

But when Mrs Strivelli showed up at the school with Pagan spell books, she was turned away, despite being assured by the principal the school would make available religious texts donated by any group.



School: North Windy Ridge intermediate school where children were given Gideon bibles

The district announced in statement: 'Buncombe County School officials are currently reviewing relevant policies and practices with school board attorneys.



'During this review period, no school in the system will be accepting donations of materials that could be viewed as advocating a particular religion or belief.'



Debate: The handing out of bibles in the school has dragged it into controversy about religious freedom

The First Amendment gives public schools two clear choices when it comes to the distribution of religious texts.

Michael Broyde, a professor and senior fellow at Emory University's Center for the Study of Law and Religion told Fox News: 'You can either open your public school up to all religious material, or you can say no religious material.

'You can't say, "You can distribute religious material, but only from the good mainstream faiths".



'America runs a grand, noble experiment in religious diversity without violence. There's no killing of the Jews. There's no Catholic-Protestant violence. We are very successful in this grand experiment.'