Chilliwack school trustees discuss Bible controversy in private (UPDATED)

Chilliwack school trustees did not discuss concerns about Bibles being distributed to students at a public board of education meeting as had been expected. Instead, they talked about the issue behind closed doors with superintendent Evelyn Novak and decided to stick with a regulation allowing Gideons International, an evangelical Protestant group, to hand out free Bibles to Grade 5 students with parental consent in all 20 elementary schools.

Novak said she raised the issue with trustees after hearing concerns from parent Richard Ajabu, who says distribution of the Bibles amounts to indoctrination. All trustees attended the meeting and directed Novak to make no changes to the regulation. But when I spoke to her Friday, she would not tell me if any trustees were in disagreement.

Her meeting with trustees was not an official in-camera meeting of the board and, as a result, rules for in-camera meetings by public bodies do not apply, she said. She typically holds such get-togethers before the monthly board meetings and there is no requirement to report-out, she added.

When I asked why an issue of public concern would be discussed in private, she replied: “Because it fits in the administrative regulations area, which is the superintendent’s purview. . . .The board felt that would be the appropriate place for the discussion to happen.”  The board did not make a decision but directed Novak to continue with the current practice.

Had the issue been raised later during the public meeting, trustees would have responded publicly, she said. (Novak, who joined the district in August, is handling media queries and returned my calls to board chairwoman Louise Piper. I’m still hoping to hear from Piper.)

Ajabu has suggested the distribution of Bibles discriminates against other religions.

“If SD33 continues to allow the distribution of non-instructional religious materials in public schools, they may be breaking the law, and they may be exposing the public school district (and taxpayers) to increased risk of legal action that should be completely unnecessary,” he’s quoted as saying in a story by Cornelia Naylor of the Chilliwack Times.

Later, Ajabu said his comments have prompted some negative feedback, including a letter in the Times telling him to go back to his home country and practice his religion there. He posted on Twitter that he’s withdrawing from the discussion temporarily and considering what he should do next..

Ajabu has received backing from a B.C. group that represents secular values.

“It’s astonishing that the Chilliwack board would make this decision behind closed doors in light of the recent controversies in Ontario,” Ian Bushfield, executive director of the B.C. Humanist Association, said in a release. He was referring to recent protests over the distribution of Gideon Bibles in Ontario’s Niagara, Bluewater and Grand Eerie School Districts.

Bushfield said the board’s decision is discriminatory. “It suggests that the only view welcome in Chilliwack public schools is Protestant Christianity.”