Tennessee
FFRF has ensured that Tennessee’s Cocke County School District will no longer unconstitutionally organize baccalaureate ceremonies.
FFRF wrote to the district after being informed that Cosby High School had held a baccalaureate service at Northport Baptist Church in Newton, Tenn., on May 5. The event was hosted by a district elementary teacher after being promoted on the district’s Facebook page.
“It is well-settled law that public schools may not show favoritism toward nor coerce belief or participation in religion,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to the district’s Director of Schools Manney Moore.
Baccalaureate programs are religious services with prayer and worship and that’s why schools may not plan, design or host baccalaureate programs, FFRF emphasized.
“CCSS does plan to pay particular attention to instruct their employees to not be overly assertive with regard to their religious beliefs when acting in their official capacity as a government employee,” the legal counsel for the Cocke County School District recently responded. “Further, CCSS plans to refrain from posting any announcement of a baccalaureate service on their official Facebook page or any other CCSS social media platform.”
