Florida
After students were given religious-themed beads by a teacher in the Pinellas County Schools system in Largo, Fla., FFRF made sure that the teacher understood her obligation to remain secular in her teaching.
A district parent reported to FFRF that a second-grade teacher at Azalea Elementary School distributed beads to her students as part of a class assignment to craft necklaces and bracelets for students to wear. The parent reported that one of the bead designs their child brought home included a Latin cross.
“The district has a duty to ensure that its teachers are not using their positions to promote their personal religious beliefs to students,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line wrote to the district.
After FFRF’s letter to the district, the School Board Attorney David Koperski worked with the teacher in question to ensure that the Constitution would be respected going forward. “There was certainly no intent to promote religion of any kind or use her classroom assignments to advance her religious beliefs,” Koperski wrote. “I spoke with her about the concern, and she understood the rules regarding the promotion of religion in her capacity as a public school teacher.”
