A teacher at Carver Middle School in Monroe, Ga., “turned her public school classroom into a Sunday school,” preaching to students and talking about the importance of Christianity.
A local family was appalled by this blatant violation of the First Amendment and contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation. FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote to Superintendent Gary Hobbs on Oct. 24, asking him to investigate the situation and take the appropriate disciplinary action. Not only did the teacher reportedly talk about “knowing god,” she did not offer a discussion of any other religion or religious preferences aside from Christianity. Seidel pointed out that the teacher said that “each of her students ‘needs to be saved.'” He also called her daily sermons an assault on “vulnerable children.”
“Public school teachers have no business indoctrinating schoolchildren in a particular religious sect, ‘the preservation and transmission of religious beliefs and worship is a responsibility and a choice committed to the private sphere,'” wrote Seidel.
Hobbs replied to Seidel on Dec. 4 writing that the principal of Carver Middle School directed the teacher to “eliminate a personal discussion of religion, her church and her beliefs with students.”
