SALEM, Ore. – An Oregon middle school banned a local youth pastor who worked as a volunteer after a student alleged he insulted her because of her lack of faith.

Straub Middle School principal Laura Perez banned Tim Saffeels, director of student ministries for Salem Heights Church, from volunteering for the rest of the year after a student wrote in to school leaders about an alleged interaction with Saffeels in the lunchroom Oct. 23, the Statesman Journal reports.

Eighth-grader Shelby Conway claims Saffeels asked students for their religious beliefs and when she revealed she was an atheist, he told her it was “wrong,” “bad,” “stupid” and “evil.” Conway contends Saffeels approached the students, who were with a student from his congregation, at the lunch table and engaged them in the discussion on religion.

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She wrote an email to Perez that she was “very uncomfortable and personally offended with the way he was speaking to both me and other non-Christians around the lunch room,” according to the news site.

“I request that we keep things like this, such as pastors and religious speeches, in places where they are welcomed, such as churches or religious schools,” Conway wrote.

Saffeels, however, denies that he was promoting religion, and told the news site he simply answered the students’ questions.

“I wasn’t in any way trying to force any of those things,” he told the Journal. “They actually did ask me ‘Who is Jesus?’”

“None of those things came out of my mouth,” Saffeels said of his alleged comments about atheism, adding that another student present at the table can verify his account. “I didn’t say any of those things.”

The Journal attempted to contact the student with contact information provided by Saffeels, but the child’s parent declined to comment on the situation.

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Saffeels told the Christian Post he had no idea the students were offended by their conversation with him until he was notified by school officials.

“In no way, at that moment, did there seem to bay issue concerning a confrontation or anything like that,” he said. “The first time that I was that there was an issue was when I received a call from the principal.”

The youth pastor said when asked about Jesus, he directed the question to a student in his ministry, and didn’t attempt to answer the question himself. The district’s chief of staff, Mary Paulson, told the Journal he should have directed students to their parents or church leaders.

“If the student had questions about a topic that isn’t appropriate for a volunteer to talk about, the expectation would be that they would refer them to somebody who could talk to them about the topic, like their parent or their own church officials,” Paulson said.

Saffeels said he had no intention of engaging students in a religious conversation, which is prohibited by school policy, but rather his focus was on building relationships with students from his ministry and their friends. He said he plans to stop volunteering at other schools, where he’s not officially banned by the school district, until he can discuss the recent incident with district leaders.

“I don’t go in with wires trying to search out students that disagree with my worldview,” he said. “My purpose is visiting schools that students have invited me to. The purpose in being there was to develop relationships and mentoring the students from our church. In a time of hardship, then there would be a familiar face that can cruise them through it.”