South Caldwell High School in Lenoir, N.C., must remove a Christian cross from its mascot logo, which is also prominently displayed in its gym, says the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog.
Multiple district community members have reported that South Caldwell High School recently added a Latin cross to the spelling of its mascot name in the gym, with the capital “T” being modified to represent a Christian cross.
“The district violates the U.S. Constitution when it allows its schools to display religious symbols or messages,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line writes to Superintendent Donald Phipps.
FFRF asserts that to protect students’ First Amendment rights, the district must immediately remove the religious display from the South Caldwell High School gym, and anywhere else it might appear.
The district boasts on its website: “We are committed to providing equitable opportunities for all students, valuing and celebrating their diverse backgrounds, cultures and perspectives.” Yet this mascot redesign and highly prominent display violate not only the constitutional prohibition against preferring religion over nonreligion or Christianity over all other faiths. Additionally, this religious display needlessly alienates, excludes and turns into second-class citizens, those students and teachers who are a part of the nearly 37 percent of Americans who are non-Christians, and the nearly one in three Americans who are now religiously unaffiliated. Gen-Zs are the least religious generation, with as many as half having no religious affiliation.
“It is the constitutional duty of every public school to remain secular in all forms,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “South Caldwell High School must adhere to this principle and remove this overtly religious symbol as soon as possible.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including more than 900 members and a chapter in North Carolina. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
