The Freedom From Religion Foundation has ensured that the Arlington Independent School District in Texas will prevent coaches from using valuable school time to preach to students.
A concerned community member informed FFRF of proselytization that occurred during school-hour football team meetings at James Bowie High School. During a scheduled ninth period class, the Junior Varsity and Varsity teams were lectured by staff on the importance of living their lives according to the bible. One witness reported a football team coach discussing how God teaches people to “spread their domain” while projecting a verse from Genesis onto a screen as a visual aid. The scene was described as “sounding a lot like church.”
“School officials cannot proselytize captive audiences of students,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to the district. Preventing such religious coercion is at “the heart of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.”
School districts may not host or promote religious classes, FFRF pointed out. It is well established that public schools may not provide devotional instruction. Here, the district seemed to be hosting bible lessons with student-athletes, on school property, with school staff, on school time. Additionally, public school employees may not direct students to partake in religious activities or participate in students’ religious activities. Religious coercion occurring within the district is particularly troubling for those parents and students who are not Christian or free from religion, including the nearly half of Generation Z (those born after 1996) who are nonreligious — which may include quite a few of the district’s athletes.
Thankfully, after FFRF’s letter the district took action to respect student rights of conscience under America’s secular Constitution.
A legal representative for the district confirmed that the district had completed an investigation of the situation: “As a result, the personnel involved have been given guidance with regard to: message communication including SportsYou app; lesson content management to ensure all Bible verses and lesson materials are not communicated in SportsYou app and removed from whiteboards; training, guidance, and counseling for all athletic staff involved on the constitutional limits regarding religious expression within public schools (the counseling included the clarification that they are not to promote religious views during school activities or instructional time).”
FFRF is pleased to see that its communication to enforce the constitutional principle of separation between religion and government has proven fruitful.
“Student athletes are particularly vulnerable to religious coercion,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The district made the right call by putting students’ rights before religious indoctrination.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with about 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including more than 1,700 members and a chapter in Texas. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
