School suspends Christian student who posted Bible verses in response to LGBTQ pride flags — and her video goes viral

An Ohio high school student says that her school suspended her for posting Bible verses at school in response to a bevy of flying LGBTQ pride flags.

The student, Gabby Helsinger, believes that the school's decision to suspend her was unreasonable and unfair.

What are the details?

In a video shared on Facebook, Gabby said that she felt the need to write down and post Bible verses around the school after it had been inundated with rainbow pride flags.

Gabby shared a video on Facebook that detailed her experience, which reportedly took place last week.

"So, on Thursday when I got to school, I see that there were pride flags, posters around my school," she said in the video, explaining that the school's Gay-Straight Alliance had put up the flags. "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."

Gabby said that she went on with the rest of her day, but noticed that some of the teachers had begun the process of taking down her Bible verse-themed notes.

"The next day," she continued, "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 school's Gay-Straight Alliance] organization.'

"I did not know what the GSA organization was or meant," she added, but noted that she believed her suspension was because the school places higher importance on inclusivity rather than students' religious beliefs.

"Seeing that there [were] people in my school that needed help," she added, "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."

Gabby insisted that she was not, in any way, "targeting any kind of organization."

When she was in the principal's office over the incident, Gabby said the principal asked why she'd post Bible verses in the school.

"I said, 'Because I wanted to spread the word of God,'" Gabby explained. "And then [the principal] goes, 'Well, did you have permission?' And I said, 'No.' I didn't know you had to have permission because people do it a lot — putting Post-It notes on people's lockers, so I just did it."

The video featuring Gabby and her story has been viewed over 40,000 times at the time of this writing.

What else?

Gabby's mother, Tina, said that she believes her daughter is being unfairly targeted for her Christian beliefs.

In a Facebook post, Tina wrote, "Lebanon [High School] celebrates evil and punishes righteousness!!

"I appealed the punishment stating 'Posting a Bible verse is not abuse of others, disrespect/insolence/rudeness and in no way was it targeting GSA," she added. "But the school principal, Scott Butler, says 'Gabby was targeting the GSA organization."

Faithwire spoke with Lebanon City School Superintendent Todd Yohey. Yohey would not release information about specific disciplinary actions against specific students, but did, however, confirm that the school's code of conduct does not prohibit "the sharing or posting of religious text or imagery on school grounds," according to the outlet.