The Freedom From Religion Foundation has secured assurances from an Illinois school district that it will engage in stricter oversight after a guest presenter reportedly promoted Christianity at an anti-vaping assembly.
FFRF contacted Galesburg Community Unit School District No. 205 after receiving a complaint about an Aug. 27 assembly at Galesburg Junior Senior High School featuring Michael R. DeLeon, founder of Steered Straight Inc., an organization that provides drug and substance abuse prevention presentations to students. According to an observer, DeLeon used the school-sponsored presentation to promote his Christian beliefs, telling students that the most important thing in his life was Jesus. School staff reportedly applauded the religious remarks.
“Students should be able to attend an in-school assembly without being subjected to a religious sales pitch,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Public schools have a responsibility to educate students, not provide outside speakers with an audience for promoting their personal religious beliefs.”
FFRF’s concerns were heightened by DeLeon’s publicly documented approach to substance abuse prevention, which repeatedly intertwines anti-drug messaging with Christian evangelism.
During a separate appearance at Hope Church in Marlette, Mich., DeLeon explicitly discussed encouraging middle and high school students to embrace Christianity.
DeLeon told the congregation he reaches students “in middle school and high school, to tell these kids, listen, do not ever waver in your faith, do not be ashamed of the gospel, talk about how Jesus Christ impacts your life because that is all that matters.” Elsewhere in the presentation, he declared that “our young people need to know who Jesus is” and that Christians have a mission to “carry the gospel and share this with other people. DeLeon also described Jesus as the ultimate answer to addiction, asserting: “Addiction is a disease from which there is no known cure outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ.” He characterized drugs as one of Satan’s “biggest tools” and claimed that faith-based recovery was superior to other approaches.
“All of the success in recovery is grounded in spiritual principles,” DeLeon said. “Faith-based treatment works the best. Recovery that’s grounded in faith works the best.”
Toward the conclusion of the church presentation, DeLeon declared, “I’m trying to get into every school in America,” before continuing to discuss his religious mission.
Although he made these statements outside the Galesburg assembly, they underscore the importance of ensuring that DeLeon’s religious evangelism does not carry over into his presentations to public school students.
FFRF does not object to schools educating students about the dangers of vaping, drugs or addiction. Such education is an important and appropriate part of a public school’s mission. But that mission cannot become a pretext for exposing students to religious proselytizing.
In its letter to the district, FFRF emphasized that public schools must remain neutral toward religion and cannot use school-sponsored events to promote Christianity or any other religious belief. Inviting an outside speaker does not relieve school officials of their constitutional responsibilities.
“A school assembly is an environment ripe for unconstitutional religious coercion,” writes FFRF Staff Attorney Madeline Ziegler. ”Students are not likely to feel they can simply leave the assembly without risking disciplinary action, and it is unreasonable to expect students to have to publicly dissent to their constitutional rights being violated.”
Superintendent John Asplund acknowledged that the religious content had not been disclosed to the district in advance and explained that the district was implementing additional procedures to review presentations by outside speakers.
FFRF welcomes the district’s commitment to stronger oversight and ensuring that future presentations remain appropriate for public school audiences.
“We commend the district for taking this concern seriously and implementing additional safeguards to protect students’ constitutional rights,” says Ziegler. “Inviting outside speakers into public schools does not give them a license to proselytize, regardless of the educational value of their presentations. School officials have a responsibility to ensure that every student can participate in educational activities without being subjected to religious pressure or indoctrination.”
FFRF has previously challenged religious organizations using ostensibly secular school activities to proselytize to students.
In 2022, FFRF filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of parents and students after a Christian revival was held at Huntington High School in Cabell County, W.Va. The event featured evangelist Nik Walker and was purportedly voluntary, but two teachers escorted their classes to the revival. Some students, including a Jewish student, reportedly asked to leave but were not permitted to do so.
The case was ultimately settled after the Cabell County Board of Education agreed to significant policy changes designed to prevent future constitutional violations. The board also agreed to pay nominal damages to the plaintiffs and nearly $175,000 in attorneys’ fees.
FFRF stresses that the religious freedom of students includes the right to make their own decisions about religion without pressure from school officials or outside speakers invited into public schools.
“Parents and students, not public school administrators or visiting motivational speakers, get to decide what role religion plays in their lives,” adds Gaylor. “No student should have to sit through a sermon disguised as an educational assembly.”
FFRF is pleased that Galesburg Community Unit School District No. 205 has taken its concerns seriously and is strengthening its review procedures. The state/church watchdog hopes these safeguards will ensure that future assemblies focus on educating students rather than promoting religious beliefs.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 40,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including 1,400 members and a chapter in Illinois. FFRF’s purposes are to defend the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
