Florida
FFRF worked with the Collier County Public Schools in Florida after a teacher mistakenly showed students a video about pollination that took a proselytizing turn.
A concerned parent reported that on Sept. 12 their child’s fourth-grade teacher at Osceola Elementary School showed students a YouTube video that included religious messages and proselytizing. The video, which was ostensibly focused on explaining the flower pollination process, directly mentioned God and Jesus. The video presenter quotes Luke 12, after saying that, “we have an awesome god, a god that loves us so much he even loves, he even cares about teeny tiny bees.”
“The district has an obligation under the law to ensure its teachers are not violating the rights of its students by proselytizing or using their position to push their personal religious beliefs,” Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district.
District General Counsel Jon Fishbane reached out to FFRF after the district had investigated the matter. He reported that the district accepted responsibility, as the video had not been fully vetted by staff before presentation from beginning to end. “The religious component that you referenced was not intentionally used by the teacher to advance her religious beliefs or try to proselytize students,” Fishbane wrote. “In fact, the instructor stopped the video when she saw the religious content being presented. Indeed, she and her curricular leaders were distressed and embarrassed by not having carefully reviewed the entire segment.”
