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Related: About this forumMississippi Free Press: "Planned Religious Lesson Didn't Go Forward After Complaint"
There remains a thin line protecting the separation between church and state
FFRF FTW
An elementary school class in South Mississippi did not receive a planned class activity featuring religious content after a national organization warned the Covington County School District that it could violate the separation of church and state.
Officials from the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the district after a Seminary Elementary School parent informed them of a planned first-grade activity that they believed contained religious content. The reported activity was a coloring page of an Easter egg split into six sections where each was assigned a different color with a religious meaning. The assignment was scheduled for March 28, FFRF said.
In its letter to the district, the organization cited several cases where courts found that public schools may not show favoritism or endorse any particular religion. FFRF is a national organization that says it is focused on protecting the separation of church and state and educating the public about nontheism.
Using a religious holiday, Easter, as a pretext to teach religious lessons in a public school is unconstitutional, FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler wrote in a March 27 letter to Covington County School District Superintendent Babette Duty.
( 7 more paragraphs follow )
Officials from the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the district after a Seminary Elementary School parent informed them of a planned first-grade activity that they believed contained religious content. The reported activity was a coloring page of an Easter egg split into six sections where each was assigned a different color with a religious meaning. The assignment was scheduled for March 28, FFRF said.
In its letter to the district, the organization cited several cases where courts found that public schools may not show favoritism or endorse any particular religion. FFRF is a national organization that says it is focused on protecting the separation of church and state and educating the public about nontheism.
Using a religious holiday, Easter, as a pretext to teach religious lessons in a public school is unconstitutional, FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler wrote in a March 27 letter to Covington County School District Superintendent Babette Duty.
( 7 more paragraphs follow )
https://www.mississippifreepress.org/planned-religious-lesson-didnt-go-forward-after-complaint-covington-county-schools-say/?
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Mississippi Free Press: "Planned Religious Lesson Didn't Go Forward After Complaint" (Original Post)
Pluvious
Jul 2024
OP
multigraincracker
(34,208 posts)1. At least the Baptist can agree...
RussBLib
(9,686 posts)2. thanks for posting
...interesting how quickly they seemed to cave in this case. Litigation takes money, something a poor district (I'm guessing, after all, southern Mississippi) has little of. I'm not griping at FFRF for, in essence, threatening to cost them money. I'm all for it, if that's what it takes to get the religious wackos to back off.
FFRF has lots of litigation and threats of litigation out there across the country. They do great work. I've been a lifetime member for several years now, but have to admit I forget to check this Forum often, and my activism ebbs and flows.
https://russblib.blogspot.com