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November 15, 2012
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District deletes Bible regulation CORNELIA NAYLOR cnaylor@chilliwacktimes.com
T
he Chilliwack school board heard from secularists, evangelical Christians, Gideons, Muslims and one high school student at a packed, standing-roomonly board meeting Tuesday before voting to delete a regulation that endorsed the distribution of free Bibles at local public schools. But that doesn’t mean the Bibles are gone for good.
Charges laid in poppy-box thefts
School board meeting packed with both secular and religious to hear controversial trustee decision The board went on to direct staff to draft a new policy on the distribution of all materials to students at schools; and that policy (due by the end of March) may yet allow for the Gideon’s annual Bible giveaway. That worries local parent Richard Ajabu, who first sparked the Bible controversy last month after
his daughter was given a glossy and colourful permission form for a free testament at her school. Ajabu told trustees Tuesday he was concerned the Chilliwack district was headed in the same direction as School District No. 34, Abbotsford, where the Gideons continue to give away Bibles at some schools under
a “distribution of materials” policy that doesn’t specifically reference the protestant Christian organization. “I’m concerned that SD33 may succumb to the same temptation,” Ajabu told trustees. He wants the new policy to ban the distribution of religious materials explicitly and to reference Sec-
tion 76 of the BC School Act, which states schools must be conducted on “strictly secular and non-sectarian principles.” That’s unlikely, based on comments from a number of trustees. Although the board voted to delete Administrative Regulation 518, which endorsed the distribution of Gideon Youth Testaments to Grade 5 students with parental consent, several trustees pointed out they were See BIBLES, Page 6
REMEMBRANCE LEST WE FORGET
BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
C
harges have been laid in the theft of several poppy collection boxes in the Chilliwack area. Last Wednesday it was reported that six of the poppy containers had been stolen from Vedder Road businesses over the span of just a few days. Two days later, in the early morning hours of Friday, around 2:30 a.m., an employee of a Vedder Road Tim Horton’s spied a man and woman attempting to steal the shop’s poppy box. Police were called and a man and a woman were arrested outside the restaurant. Milton Gabriel, 40, was arrested on two outstanding warrants. Police say he later admitted to stealing several boxes around Chilliwack. Gabriel has been charged with See POPPY, Page 13
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Ed Grant (left) prepares to lay a wreath for the PPCLI Association at the Vedder Cenotaph on Remembrance Day. Grant is accompanied by association president Matt Brown. Hundreds turned out Nov. 11 both at the Vedder ceremony and in Downtown Chilliwack. For more photos visit www.chilliwacktimes.com.
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