08/29/2023
Christian Nationalists are attacking our public schools!
Across America, students are returning to public schools that have been under relentless attack from Christian Nationalists who want to force all of us—especially impressionable children—to live by their narrow beliefs.
Religious extremists are intentionally sowing disinformation about recent Supreme Court decisions involving religion in public schools and public funding of religious education to confuse students, families and teachers about whether religious coercion is allowed in public schools.
We need to make clear that students still have extensive religious freedom rights in public schools.
Americans United has updated their “Know Your Rights” guides, which explain the religious freedom rights of students and their parents in public schools, as well as the rights and responsibilities of public school employees.
https://www.au.org/knowyourrights/
Check out AU's “Know Your Rights” guides and share them with the public school families you know.
Just in the last few months, we’ve seen an emboldened effort to infuse Christianity into public schools. Texas is now allowing public schools to replace certified school counselors with religious chaplains. New Idaho and Kentucky laws encourage teachers and other public school employees to pray in front of—and even with—students. Missouri and Louisiana now permit public schools to teach Sunday-school-style Bible classes. Extremist lawmakers and school board members across the country are ramping up efforts to ban books and lessons about race, sexual orientation, gender identity and even menstruation in public schools.
We’re witnessing a full-on assault on church-state separation and public education.
We owe it to our children to ensure their public schools—the building blocks of our diverse society—are welcoming, inclusive and free of religious coercion. It’s still the law of the land that public schools can’t pressure students to pray, have official prayers at school events, teach creationism or other religious doctrines, or display religious iconography or messages on school property.
Please post these valuable resources on social media, send them to school administrators and others in your community, drop them off in libraries — you get the idea.
As children head back to school this year, let’s recommit to separating church and state. Our public schools and our democracy depend on it.
If you’re a student or teacher at a public school, or your kids attend one, it is important to Know Your Rights! about religious freedom in public schools.
