A high school student in Ohio is facing a suspension for posting Bible verses in her school in response to the LGBT pride flags on display in the school hallways.
According to a report by Fox News, Gabby Helsinger is a student at Lebanon High School. On Friday, Helsinger posted a video to Facebook claiming that she is facing punishment at school for “targeting” Lebanon’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club.
“On Thursday when I got to school, I see that there were pride flags, posters around my school,” Gabby said in the video. “And I felt the need to write down some Bible verses so I could put them around my school. And I wrote them down and I put them around the lockers, the walls.”
Then Helsinger said that she was coming back from lunch when she saw teachers taking those Bible verses down.
“The next day, I got called to the office and there is a letter that says that I have an ISS, which is an in-school suspension, and the reason why I have it is because ‘abuse of others, disrespect, rudeness’ because I put Bible verses up ‘targeting the GSA organization,’” she went on in the video. “I did not know what the GSA organization was or meant.”
Helsinger claims that she was trying to help, and wasn’t targeting any organization when she decided to post Bible verses around the school.
“Seeing that there [were] people in my school that needed help … ,” said Helsinger. “They don’t need to be living in the confusion of wondering if they should be gay, bi, lesbian, trans — anything like that. And I know that God is the only way that they can be healed by that, and that’s why I did it…”
Helsinger said in the Facebook video that when the principal asked her why she posted the Bible verses, she did it because she wanted “to spread the word of God.” Then when the principal asked Helsinger if she had permission to do so, she answered that she did not know that was necessary--people often post notes on students’ lockers, Helsinger said.
Helsinger’s mother said in a post on Facebook that she believes her daughter is being unfairly punished by the school for expressing her beliefs.
“Lebanon schools celebrates evil and punishes righteousness!!” she posted, adding that she had appealed the suspension. “Posting a Bible verse is not abuse of others, disrespect/insolence/rudeness and in no way was it targeting GSA.”
The Lebanon City School Superintendent told Faithwire that the school’s Student Code of Conduct does not, in fact, prohibit the sharing or posting of religious text or imagery at school. He also added that religious clubs, including the GSA, are permitted to advertise during school hours.
When Fox News reached out to the school’s principal, Scott Butler, he said he had no comment.
“We do not publicly discuss the discipline of individual students. In general, when a student violates the Student Code of Conduct, there are consequences for those actions,” Butler told Fox News.
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