FFRF mutes religious music at North Dakota elementary school (June 25, 2012)

Students at Horace Elementary School (West Fargo, N.D.) will no longer be forced to perform religious music after receiving a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Grades 3-5 at the school put on a program that included seven songs with strong religious themes, including “Jesus Take the Wheel” and “Long Black Train.” Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert wrote to the school on June 8, explaining that “teaching these very young and impressionable students pervasively Christian music in a public school violates the First Amendment.”

Superintendent David Flowers responded June 25, saying that he agreed the concert had been inappropriate and that the district would be reviewing guidelines about religious music with the music staff in the fall.