A California school district has ruled that teachers violated the rights of Christian students when they prohibited the distribution of a series of Bible coins.

The students were giving classmates coins that were printed with different Bible verses including John 3:16 and John 3:36.

“We’re going to make sure that students are protected,” Apple Valley School District Superintendent Thomas Hoegerman told the San Bernadino Sun.  “There was no malicious intent but we clearly had folks who didn’t fully understand the implications.”

The children were giving the coins to their friends during recess periods and not during actual class time when they were stopped by teachers.

One of the teachers, Stormy DeHaro, told her student she hated the coins and they were a distraction to her class.  A second teacher removed them from Valentine’s cards a student brought to her class and returned them to the child saying they were a violation “of the Ed Code.”

The superintendent says he regrets the incident and the problems it caused to the student’s family.