The superintendent of Wayland Union Schools near Grand Rapids recently had a tough decision to make: Turn way the Gideons International’s efforts to give out free Bibles in school or face a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Fortunately for the U.S. principle of the separation of church and state, the superintendent ended the practice of Bibles being given out to fifth-grade students, which had gone on in the district since about 1990.

This is the first year a parent complained about the free Bibles violating that constitutional principle.

Our public schools are set up to be secular institutions, providing academic, not religious guidance, to students.

When religion gets unnecessarily mixed with academics, it becomes remarkably easy to alienate children who are part of minority religious groups. That is not the goal or the purpose of public schools.

The Wayland district made students bring back a permission slip from their parents to receive a Bible, but this effort still does not address the main concern of promoting a particular religion in school. A public school is supposed to welcome students of all religions, and the distribution of the Bible makes the Christian faith stand out as the one children should choose.

If providing Bibles is OK, then other religions will begin to wonder why they have not taken the time to distribute their own religious texts as well.

This is not to say that children should not learn about religion. But it should be a parent’s choice as to how, what and where a child learns about faith. Schools should not interfere in this process.

And if parents believe their child also should learn about a particular religion in school, then they have the choice to send their child to a private institution, where Bibles and other religious material can be distributed freely.

Let parents take the initiative to teach religion in the home or at church and leave those beliefs out of public education.