The Freedom From Religion Foundation is condemning a Virginia school district for promoting religion on its school vehicles.
The state-church watchdog is expressing disappointment that Lee County Schools has decided to place the theocratic phrase “In God We Trust” on every school bus in the district. This comes amid a nationwide Christian nationalist legislative push, known as “Project Blitz,” which includes an effort to put the phrase in each public school classroom.
FFRF urges Lee County Schools to reverse course. Statements by many legislators in support of “Project Blitz” legislation make the purpose behind the putting the motto in public schools clear: to use the machinery of school districts to promote the Christian god.
“This is an assault on the religious liberty of every student in the district, who have a right to a public school system that will not favor any one religion, or religion over nonreligion,” says FFRF Staff Attorney Ryan Jayne.
The religious motto sends a message that atheist and agnostic students — 21 percent of younger Americans, according to a recent study — are outsiders in their own school district. Religion is inherently divisive and should never be promoted by our secular public schools. It is directly contrary to the unity that school districts should be striving for, and that was enshrined in the nation’s original motto, E pluribus unum: from many, one.
On behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s 33,000 members nationwide, including more than 750 in Virginia, FFRF is dedicated to continuing to fight for the rights of students to a secular public school system.
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