Religious Activities at Elementary School Challenged

In Louisiana, the Bossier Parish school board is fighting hard to keep various religious activities included in school activities. The very idea that a government school shouldn’t be involved in promoting or supporting religion seems to have never occurred to anyone there.

The Louisiana News reports:

[T]he American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on behalf of Sandra and David McBride, the parents of a second grader and fifth grader at Stockwell Place Elementary. The children, whose names were not made public, told their parents they were being teased because they refused to participate in activities like Christmas caroling at nursing homes. ... The ACLU also said the school displayed a nativity scene in the library during the holidays, a time when the teasing escalated.

The suit also takes issue with a group called "Stallions for Christ" which promotes "Christian fellowship and prayer," the ACLU said. The group, named after the school's mascot, meets during recess and is led by a teacher. School officials also sponsored a Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduation that included a student-led prayer, religious songs and speeches that ended with the words "God bless you", according to the suit.

One of the reasons why it is wrong for schools to take a position on behalf of certain religions or religious beliefs is that there will always be children who don’t follow the religion of the majority. The consequences of being teased and treated like second-class citizens, witnessed here, are completely predictable and completely avoidable. When school officials persist despite what the children endure, they essentially communicate the idea that those children just don’t matter. A person’s status in the community should not be made dependent upon their religious affiliation.

Read More:

• Secularism 101
• Separation of Church and State 101
• Religion in Public Schools
• School Prayer