Early Tuesday morning as students were just starting to arrive at Niu Valley Middle School, there were men dressed in mostly black standing along the edge of campus. Some wore blue shirts. All were roughly in their 40s to 60s. Each had a duffel bag. They were approaching kids as they walked to school.

In light of the national conversation we are having about keeping schools safe for children, the scene looked wrong, the optics bad.

One tall, stocky man went up to a gangly girl who was struggling under a huge backpack. She looked like she was 11 years old. He spoke to her and she backed up. She clearly didn’t know him. He handed her something.

Turns out the large man, and the six to eight other men surrounding the middle school entry, were members of the Gideons, the same religious group that puts Bibles in motel rooms. The Gideons also have a program to put Bibles into the hands of public school children. They stand right on the edge of campus on a public sidewalk so they’re not technically on school grounds and they waylay children on their way to school. They say, “How you doing?” or “This is for you!” and they smile at the adults who shoot them a wary eye.

The issue about passing out religious material at a public school is a separate subject. This isn’t about Jesus in schools. It’s about strangers toeing a line just outside school property.

Several parents called police. The school, much to its credit, quickly dispatched faculty, staff and administrators to stand alongside the perimeter of the campus to monitor the interactions, make sure the kids didn’t feel intimidated and to let parents know that the Bible giveaway wasn’t part of the school.

These strangers, regardless of their heartfelt intentions, should not be chatting up sixth-graders on their way to school. We teach our children not to talk to strangers, and these guys show up outside their school and try to strike up a conversation? No. And they try to offer them something out of a bag? No. Some middle-school kids are 6 feet tall with moustaches while some look like babies, but 11- and 12-year-olds still need to check with Mom or Dad before they accept a gift from a stranger. Anyone who disregards the basic safety rules we teach to kids is disrespectful to children, their parents and their school.

And who is to know a stranger’s true intention? A bad guy can just as easily use a bag of Bibles and a friendly smile to gain access to children for terrible things.

DOE director of communications Donalyn Dela Cruz said this group has done this in years past at different schools. The group is not breaking the law by soliciting on a county sidewalk, as it is a public space.

It’s too bad we’ve gotten to the point where guys with Bibles are suspicious, but those men disregarded the very real fears we all have about keeping schools safe and the rules society has about strangers and kids.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.