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The Freedom From Religion Foundation has successfully stopped a Kentucky public elementary school from sponsoring devotional events.
The swift resolution came just two days after FFRF contacted Pike County Schools to object to a religious “prayer walk” that Mullins Elementary School held.
A concerned district community member reported that Mullins Elementary organized, promoted and encouraged attendance at a religious “prayer walk” event on Aug. 2. A post on Mullins Elementary’s official Facebook page invited the community to the event: “Join the Mullins School community to pray for every area of our school.” It also quoted a New Testament verse, Philippians 4:6, saying “Do not worry. Instead, pray and ask God for what you need with a thankful heart.”
FFRF requested that Pike County Schools cease organizing, promoting or encouraging attendance at religious events and ensure that future school-sponsored events are secular.
“Here, the district is displaying blatant favoritism towards religion over nonreligion by asking the school community to participate in a Christian prayer event,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Charlotte R. Gude wrote to the district.
The district serves a diverse population that consists of not only religious students, families, and employees, but also non-Christians including atheists, agnostics and those who are simply religiously unaffiliated. An invitation from the district to “join the school community to pray” sends an official message that unconstitutionally promotes religion, excluding all nonreligious district students and community members. Up to 38 percent of the American population is non-Christian, including the almost 30 percent that is nonreligious.
Just two days after receiving FFRF’s complaint letter, the district responded with a renewed commitment to students’ rights.
The general counsel of Pike County Schools informed FFRF that he had directly talked with the then-Mullins Elementary principal and instructed him “to speak with his staff about this issue and to refrain from organizing, promoting and encouraging attendance at religious events, and ensure that all future school-sponsored events are entirely secular.” The district’s counsel additionally pledged: “I will make every effort to ensure that our employees are not unlawfully or inappropriately indoctrinating students in religious matters.”
FFRF commends Pike County Schools for its prompt and unequivocal response.
“Public schools exist to educate, not to indoctrinate. Parents and schoolchildren should never be inveighed by their public schools to pray,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Taxpayers of all religions and no religion support our public schools, so all should be welcome — and nothing is more divisive than religion in our public schools.”
FFRF is pleased that, thanks to a concerned community member who spoke up, Pike County Schools has taken concrete steps to make Mullins Elementary welcoming of all families — regardless of their religious or nonreligious beliefs.
“We thank our complainant for bringing this violation to our attention and Pike County Schools for quickly addressing it,” Gaylor adds.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 40,000 members and several chapters nationwide, including hundreds of members and a chapter in Kentucky. FFRF’s purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
