The Freedom From Religion Foundation is insisting that the Lauderdale County School System in Florence, Ala., rectify multiple First Amendment violations.
A concerned district parent has come forward to reveal several constitutional infringements occurring in the district. On Aug. 11, Lexington Methodist Church hosted a “fall Tailgate” event at Lexington High School in Florence, Ala., that included religious worship music and prayer. The official school event included performances by the school’s marching band and cheerleaders, as well as speeches from multiple coaches. FFRF’s complainant also reported that the school’s band director informed students they would be playing at this religious event on July 28. Additionally, the complainant informed the state/church watchdog that each football game begins with a prayer said over the loudspeaker by a student. The complainant and their child are nonreligious — and the district’s actions demonstrate an unconstitutional pattern and practice of religious coercion and official favoritism toward one particular religion over all other religions and nonreligion.
“Here, the district’s practice of including Christian prayer and worship as part of official school events unconstitutionally coerces all in attendance, including students, to observe and participate in a religious ritual,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line has written to the district.
Public school students have the First Amendment right to be free from religious indoctrination in their schools, including when participating in school-sponsored events. By partnering with a church to hold a religious worship event and opening other school-sponsored events with Christian prayer, the district has violated the First Amendment. School officials may not invite a student, teacher, faculty member or clergy member to give any type of prayer, invocation, benediction or sermon at a public high school-sponsored event, and they may not give a prayer themselves. Here, the district’s practice of including Christian prayer and worship as part of official school events unconstitutionally coerces all in attendance, including students, to observe and participate in a religious ritual.
The religious favoritism and coercion occurring within the district is particularly troubling for those parents and students who are non-Christian, such as FFRF’s complainant. The district’s pervasive promotion of Christianity needlessly alienates students, families and employees part of the 37 percent of Americans who are non-Christian. At least a third of Generation Z members (those born after 1996) have no religion, with a recent survey revealing almost half of Gen Z qualifying as religiously unaffiliated “nones.”
FFRF asserts that the district needs to abandon the multitude of violations in order to protect the First Amendment rights of students, families, employees and community members.
“These intrusive and inappropriate religious practices at games need to be benched,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This district needs to ensure that the secular education of students comes first, not religious proselytization.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 40,000 members across the country, including hundreds of members in Alabama. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
