ACLU Launches Religious Freedom Campaign
Organization aims to strengthen religious freedom in South Carolina's schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of South Carolina recently launched a “Religious Freedom Goes to School” campaign to encourage freedom from religion in South Carolina’s public schools.
The organization sent letters to all public schools in the state requesting policy information on religion and suggesting they review these policies. The ACLU has also added an online survey for students, parents or school employees to report possible religious freedom violations.
COMING THURSDAY: The Freedom From Religion Foundation tells Patch why it chose to help students file suit against Irmo High School in Lexington-Richland School District 5.
COMING FRIDAY: We profile the Irmo High School student who chose to fight prayer at the school's June graduation.
In the letter to schools, the organization writes that its campaign will “challenge all of our public schools to do more to protect these time-honored First Amendment rights.” While advising schools to change policies if they are not compliant with the latest settled law, they state that “litigation will be a last resort.”
“It’s important that all students know that they’re going back to school to a place where they will be welcome no matter what they believe,” said Victoria Middleton, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina, in a press release. “We’ve received too many reports of religious freedom violations, especially complaints that many South Carolina schools continue to impose religion on students.”
In the past two years, the ACLU has received complaints regarding teacher-led class prayers; Bible distribution; prayer at graduation ceremonies, sporting events, etc.; school events featuring religious content; coach-led prayer at sporting events and opening prayers at board meetings, among others.
The ACLU, with its campaign, hopes to educate schools on their duty to protect students from religious exercises and to “uncover and correct violations.”
The organization has worked to protect religious freedom for more than 90 years, and recently represented a student in a religious freedom case against Chesterfield County School District. The district signed a consent decree, which the ACLU suggests should be used as a model throughout the state.
Laura
4:08 pm on Wednesday, August 22, 2012
I beleive everyone has freedom to pray. If anybody else does not beleive in it or does not want to join in in prayer, they can excuse themselves with no questions asked. I do not beleive that prayer or anything religious should be stopped in any public places because of other's religious beleifs. After all it is "freedom of speech" no matter what the religion.
Mimi
12:09 am on Thursday, August 23, 2012
So I guess Laura you wouldn't have any problem with the Muslims laying their knelling rug down during class at prayer time and knelling to pray in thier fashion?? I guess you would have no problem with the Aethist being burden by somebody else's religous beliefs. Why should someone leave a school function for all religions to avoid being bothered by their version. This is why we have churches and furthermore if students feel they must be surround by their religeon at all times there are religous schools available. PUBLIC schools must adhere to the PUBLIC not just those who think they want our schools to become churches. NO RELIGiON IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS PERIOD
Robert Kelly
6:14 pm on Wednesday, August 22, 2012
I generally believe in "live and let live", but teachers (administrators, etc.) should not be allowed to lead children in prayer because there is a basic coercion when they do that. Why do we have statutory rape even if the minor is willing? Because authority figures have too much influence over younger minds. They should not do that. Then of course there is also the more pragmatic point that to show favoritism to one religion is not appropriate, and to have prayers from ALL religions would simply take too much time and interfere with the primary purpose of school.