Iowa
FFRF took note when the Newton Community School District seemingly promoted prayer via a video posted on social media, and dutifully worked to ensure that the district understood its obligation to remain secular.
On Nov. 26, 2024, the Newton High School girls basketball team posted a “hype video” on its official Facebook account. While most of the video is unproblematic, the beginning of the video featured the entire team seemingly praying with the head coach present.
“Government religious speech promoting Christian viewpoints marginalizes and excludes non-Christian students, teachers, and parents whose religious beliefs are inconsistent with the message being promoted by the school staff,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to the district.
Superintendent Tom Messinger took the time to respond to the complaint after reviewing the matter. “In response to that review, we removed the video from the social media account at issue,” Messinger wrote. “We will also take steps to ensure that social media accounts held by the district for student activities are not used to post messages that could be perceived by students as sponsorship of a particular religion or religion in general.”
Messinger additionally addressed the matter with the coach involved and relevant supervisory personnel, and reviewed the Establishment Clause with the entire athletics staff and directed them to comply with restrictions on participating in prayer with students.
