Boy Claimed His Teacher Banned Him From Reading the Bible — but the Principal Said There's a Major Problem With His Story

A public school principal in Missouri pushed back against a middle school student's claim that a teacher banned him from reading the Bible in school, claiming that the incident did not unfold as was alleged and that students are more than welcome to read their Bibles in school.

Lance Tobin, principal of Bueker Middle School in Marshall, Missouri, told TheBlaze on Friday that claims made by Loyal Grandstaff, a 7th grader at the school, had not been substantiated when a local outlet published them and that the situation has since been resolved.

"We just all agreed and we talked about school and religion," Tobin said. "And I wanted to make sure that they were comfortable understanding that their child could have the Bible at school and could read the Bible at school."

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Tobin, who declined to go into specific detail when asked why the family alleged that a teacher had banned the 12 year old from reading the book if that story wasn't accurate, said that going public with the claims was likely "something that [the family] felt like they needed to do at the time."

When asked how the teacher accused of banning the Bible is faring in light of the attention the situation has been given, the principal added, "There is no teacher involved whatsoever."

Tobin added that he was frustrated that WDAF-TV, a Kansas City-based Fox affiliate, aired the story before he had a chance to look into it, but affirmed that the situation has concluded. He would not comment when asked if the story was fabricated.

"Everything is wonderful," he said.

These sentiments were also reflected in an interview he did with the Christian Post this week.

"The incident was never validated," Tobin told the outlet. "Fox 4 News ran the report before we had the chance to look into the incident ourselves. All is good at BMS!"

Watch the original report below:

As TheBlaze previously reported, Grandstaff's family accused a teacher of violating the child’s First Amendment rights by allegedly refusing to allow him to read his Bible in school in an interview with week with WDAF-TV.

They claimed that Loyal Grandstaff was told by his teacher that he couldn’t read the book after he brought the Bible in and silently studied it during free time.

“I feel like it violated his freedom of religion but also his freedom of speech,” Justin Grandstaff, the 12 year old’s father, told WDAF-TV.

Loyal said that he wasn’t being loud and that he wasn’t sharing the book with his peers at the time.

A voicemail left for the assistant news director at WDAF-TV has not yet been returned to TheBlaze.

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