The Maryland Department of Natural Resources has ended a partnership with the Boy Scouts of America, which discriminates against atheists and agnostics, as well as LGBT adults.

The DNR previously had an annual charter agreement with the Baltimore Boy Scouts in which the DNR agreed to conduct a scouting program in accordance with the Boy Scouts’ policies. “The DNR cannot continue to sponsor this discriminatory program,” wrote Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott in a letter to the DNR on Sept. 24, 2014.

The DNR responded on Dec. 22, informing FFRF that the charter agreement had expired and would not be renewed.

Thanks to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, teachers and church groups will not be permitted to lead religious events at Athens Elementary School in Athens, Ala.

In 2013, a local church group was permitted to lead a “See You At The Pole” gathering, a Christian prayer event, at the school. The school’s athletic coach reportedly led students in prayer at the event.

Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent Superintendent Trey Holladay a letter on Oct. 9, 2013, noting that public school employees “must refrain from actively participating in religious activities while acting within their governmental role to avoid any perception of government endorsement of religion.”

“It is especially inappropriate for churches to be granted access to elementary school students, who are made a captive audience at an age when they are particularly impressionable and intellectually incapable of making their own decisions regarding religious observance.”

An attorney for the district responded in December, informing FFRF that no See You At The Pole events had occurred since FFRF’s letter.

After the Freedom From Religion Foundation lodged a complaint, staff at the Haskins Learning Center in Pratt Unified School District will not lead students in prayer.

FFRF received a report that before a school-wide Thanksgiving lunch, the school’s principal asked everyone to bow their heads and a teacher delivered a prayer.

“The District should make certain that teachers in its schools are not unlawfully and inappropriately indoctrinating students in religious matters by encouraging them to engage in prayer or by praying with students at school activities,” wrote FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel.

An attorney for the school district sent FFRF a letter on Dec. 18, saying he “[did] not disagree” with FFRF’s account of what happened at the lunch, continuing, “It is now acknowledged that prayer offered by staff members of a public school entity may not be appreciated by all students and parents, and it is not anticipated that this will occur in the future.”

The Arizona Department of Economic Security has discontinued use of a religious training video thanks to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

A mandatory meeting for some DES employees included a video featuring a comedian who talked about dying briefly and meeting God, who told her people who work at DES are “angels with big white wings.” The video included a prayer.

Staff Attorney Sam Grover wrote the department a letter on Nov. 17, 2014, asking the DES to refrain from using the video in future trainings. “As a government entity, DES has a constitutional obligation to remain neutral toward religion,” reminded Grover. “Federal courts have held that mandatory meetings for government employees cannot be used to promote religion in violation of the Establishment Clause.”

DES Training and Development Administrator Adele Cook wrote to FFRF on Dec. 3 to say that the units that were still using the video as part of their training programs would immediately discontinue doing so, and “all agency training units will be directed not to use the video in the future.”

Gulf Coast Charter Academy South in Naples, Fla., cut a religious song from its curriculum pursuant to a complaint made by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The song was reportedly about a child getting lost in the woods and being saved by an angel after kneeling and praying. The chorus was something to the effect of, “I believe in angels sent down from heaven.”

“It is wholly inappropriate for a public school teacher to teach songs of worship in a public school setting,” wrote Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel in a letter sent Nov. 24, 2014. “The music described above has a devotional message and thus would be appropriate in a church setting, but not in a public school. There are a multitude of secular songs that would be appropriate in this setting.”

In a response dated Dec. 1, an attorney for the school informed Seidel that the song was removed from all classes, and that the school was “reviewing the balance of the curriculum to ensure further compliance.

The new administration of Worth County Schools in Sylvester, Ga., will there’s no repeat of a religious assembly condoned by the previous administrators.

Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote Superintendent Barbara Thomas on Jan 30, 2013, after receiving a complaint that an assembly included the principal prompting a student to lead a prayer followed by a speech by a pastor who talked to students about “finding Jesus Christ.”

After unproductive correspondence with Dr. Thomas, who stated that “it was the consensus of the Board [of Education] that no one’s rights would be infringed” by the imposition of religion at the assembly, a new superintendent responded to FFRF’s complaint on Nov. 20. She stated that she could not confirm that the assembly had occurred, but that she was “most concerned about this incident,” and that she discussed it with the district’s principals and gave them guidelines about religion in public schools.

R.J. Fisher Middle School’s graduation ceremony will no longer be held at Calvary Church after the Freedom From Religion Foundation lodged a complaint.

Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote the Los Gatos Union School District superintendent on June 16, 2014, informing her that holding public school graduations in houses of worship “is unconstitutional because it forces graduating students and their family and friends wishing to participate in, view, or celebrate the graduation to enter a church to do so, even if the selected church espouses a religious ideology or belief to which they may not adhere.”

Superintendent Diana Abbati responded Nov. 20, 2014, writing that the district would be moving its 2015 graduation ceremonies to “a venue not affiliated with a religious entity.”

Thanks to efforts by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, teachers in Chandler Public Schools will not create religious projects with their students in the future.

FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a letter to the district in 2013 after learning of an auction where two items for sale were religious art projects created by classes of students: a poster with a bible quote, “Blessed are the pure in heart,” and a poster that read, “Wash your hands & say your prayers cause Jesus and germs are everywhere.”

“Chandler Public Schools has a legal duty to ensure that its teachers and administrators are not unlawfully and inappropriately indoctrinating students in religious matters,” wrote Seidel.

After several follow up letters, Seidel received an email on Nov. 20, 2014, from a new superintendent who assured FFRF he did not anticipate the recurrence of the constitutional violation.

Anniston High School’s football coach will no longer organize and lead his team in prayers after receiving a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

A local news report noted that Coach Eddie Bullock asked for a “prayer leader,” a student who led the other players in prayer. Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote Superintendent Darren Douthitt of Anniston City Schools on Oct. 31, writing that “Anniston City Schools must take action to ensure that coaches do not lead, organize, invite, encourage, or participate in prayers with their teams.”

“We have informed our coaching staff that they cannot initiate a prayer by the embers of our athletic teams. It is also our plan to remind all faculty and staff of all our schools that they cannot initiate nor participate in student prayer,” wrote an attorney for the school district in a Nov. 17 response.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is bestowing $20,000 USD to the Parisian magazine Charlie Hebdo "in a show of admiration and solidarity from your atheist and freethinking brothers and sisters across the Atlantic," FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor announced Jan. 15.

"FFRF created an Atheists in Foxholes Support Fund in 2012 to provide a show of support for activists who find themselves in the crossfire as 'atheists in foxholes,' " Gaylor added. "We never imagined atheists would so literally be in the crossfire."

Additional donations received for this fund by FFRF in January will go to Charlie Hebdo. (Select Atheists in Foxhole Support Fund in drop down menu.) 

Jessica Ahlquist, then age 16, was the first recipient. Jessica had won a federal court decision against a prayer mural in her Rhode Island high school and needed a police escort to attend school.

Ten of Charlie Hebdo's staff members, including many of its irreverent cartoonists, were slaughtered Jan. 7 in the name of Allah and "avenging the prophet," in a terrorist killing spree ultimately ending in 17 deaths, including an attack in a Jewish supermarket. 

In the lead editorial in this week's issue, the editors referred to Charlie Hebdo as an "atheist magazine." From the editorial: "For the past week, Charlie, an atheist newspaper, has achieved more miracles than all the saints and prophets combined."

Barker added, "Just as gunning down four Jews in a kosher supermarket is a hate crime against Jews for being Jews, many of our members are pointing out atheists were targeted as well, simply for expressing our irreverence."

Barker praised France's historic freethinking role. "It's the nation that produced Voltaire, the early atheists — such as Meslier and Diderot, the encylopedists — Lafayette, among so many other notables, and is proudly dedicated to secularism."

"We'll leave it to Charlie Hebdo to use this gift where it's most needed, whether to aid victims' surviving families, for security or whatever the magazine deems necessary," Gaylor said.

She said she's in awe that the weekly has kept publishing on schedule. The cover of this week's magazine depicts a tearful Muhammad saying "Je suis Charlie," the rallying cry after the terrorist attack, with the words "All is forgiven."

FFRF is inscribing one of its Emperor Has No Clothes awards (pictured above) to Charlie Hebdo and will be mailing the gold-plated statuette to the magazine. The statuette is made for FFRF by the company that produces the Oscars and is reserved for public figures who "tell it like it is" about religion.

"Charlie Hebdo perfectly exemplifies the child in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale who 'tells it like it is'," FFRF notes.

Due to difficulties in donating this gift internationally, as this is announced, FFRF is planning to send a $20,000 USD check in the mail today, to be received by Jan. 20, but is still in correspondence with the organization over the details.

FFRF received word Dec. 1 that a city-sponsored “Keep Christ in Christmas”-themed parade meant to “reflect our strong belief in prayers” would be retitled the “City of Piedmont Christmas Parade.” An attorney for the city of Piedmont, Ala., wrote a letter notifying Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel that the parade would be renamed pursuant to FFRF’s request. FFRF sent a letter Nov. 24, challenging the unconstitutional theme on behalf of a local complainant. The theme “alienates non-Christians and others in Piedmont who do not in fact have a ‘strong belief in prayers’ by turning them into political outsiders in their own community,” wrote Seidel, explaining that a “Keep Christ in Christmas” parade was not a permissible secular Christmas celebration.

FFRF also wrote to Piedmont City Schools after the official Piedmont High School Facebook page advertised the parade. The post has since been edited to reflect the revised theme.

FFRF originally contacted Middletown City Schools in Ohio last spring about high school football coach Chris Wells leading students in prayer and inviting them to his church. The district assured FFRF that administrators had met with Wells and told him that his actions crossed the constitutional line.

But in September, FFRF received a report from a new complainant that Wells was again leading prayers before and after every game. Wells allegedly told players after a Sept. 19 losing game that they needed to rededicate themselves to God and ordered them to take a knee and pray. When one player refused, the coach allegedly threw him off the team.

“Coach Wells is purposefully and willfully ignoring the law and the district’s explicit directive,” wrote Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert in a second letter of complaint.

An attorney for the district responded in November, saying administrators reiterated to Wells that he could not “involve religion in any way in either his coaching or in his involvement with students. The athletic director was directed to monitor the situation closely.

“Should you receive any more complaints, please let me know, so that the district can investigate and take further action,” the attorney’s response said.

Two public high schools in Kalispell, Mont., declined this year’s invitation to participate in a performance “celebrating the birth of our savior Jesus Christ” at a Mormon church after FFRF objected to the school’s participation last year.

“Because this event includes literally hundreds of depictions of the birth of Jesus Christ as described in the bible, school participation in this overtly religious ‘Community Christmas Celebration’ event crosses the line by creating a perception of school endorsement of the religious aspects of Christmas,” wrote Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel on Nov. 29, 2013.

The Flathead Area Secular Humanist Association in Whitefish told FFRF that the schools’ choir directors turned down an invitation to participate this year. Often, a school district or other governmental body will make the changes FFRF requests and then fail to report the action taken, as was the case here.

FFRF is grateful to the Flathead group for the update and encourages other local complainants to be sure to let FFRF know when its letters make a difference.