Aubrey High School’s Mystery Bibles
These Bibles got distributed at Aubrey High School.
A Redditor posted about Bibles being distributed at Aubrey High School, a public Texas high school located in Aubrey, Texas. This person told me that they were likely donated, but isn’t sure where exactly these materials came from.
Being located in “the buckle of the Bible Belt”, this Redditor found the distribution of these Bibles “unacceptable”. This netizen also noted that there was an “In God We Trust” sign in the administrative office. In Texas, a 2022 law required that “In God We Trust” signs be displayed in plain view if they were donated or purchased with private donations.
After that, I did some digging to find out where these Bibles came from. At first, I came across a nonprofit called the Bible Box project that left Bibles in boxes for people to take for free. The organization appears to be based in Dallas, Texas, which is around 50 miles from Aubrey. It is not clear whether this organization only distributes Bibles in Dallas only or in other Texas cities as well.
The presence of religion and religious motifs in public schools is a highly contested topic in the US. As a general rule, however, public schools may include religious materials in their curriculum if they are used for academic rather than for devotional purposes. However, there aren’t any clear rules when it comes to distributing religious materials with no accompanying lessons either way.
When it comes to Aubrey High School’s Bible box, so far, I have more questions than answer. For one thing, I wonder how the school and the public would have treated attempts to distribute other holy texts such as the Quran. For another, there isn’t much material available that covers the distribution of religious texts independent of any teaching materials.
