The Freedom From Religion Foundation said it appears an elementary teacher in Moulton was illegally promoting Christianity to first graders in April during the Easter discussion, but the county superintendent of schools Lawrence said the teacher was “well in his job description”.
Last week, the foundation, based in Madison, Wis., sent Superintendent Jon Bret Smith an email asking the school system to “immediately investigate” a complaint filed with the foundation by a parent.
In the July 21 letter, Freedom From Religion Foundation staff attorney Christopher Line wrote that, according to the parent, the teacher “taught the students Jesus Christ and Easter, and also provided the students with religious coloring book pages to take home”.
Line wrote that the complainant reported that the coloring book page “depicted Jesus Christ and a Bible verse, Mark 16:6, which says ‘Jesus lives’.”
Smith does not plan to comply with the request.
“From my perspective, an investigation is not warranted,” Smith said. “(The teacher) was teaching the curriculum. The teacher was doing her job. Every teacher in the state of Alabama is responsible for teaching the curriculum thoroughly. This is covered by two objectives in the first-year curriculum.
According to Goal 11 of Alabama’s first-grade social studies curriculum, teachers are to “identify the traditions and contributions of diverse cultures in the local community and state.” Examples: Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hanukkah, 4th of July, Cinco de Mayo. »
Objective No. 12 within the framework of the study: “To compare the common and unique characteristics of social groups, including age, religious beliefs, ethnicity, persons with disabilities and gender equality”.
Smith said the examples the state lists during the study support its argument.
“If Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are here, so is Easter,” he said. “No. 12 is about religious beliefs. Easter is about religious beliefs. We are certainly covered in the curriculum. We want to make sure that class discussions are based on the curriculum. We teach this which has been approved by the state.
On Tuesday, Line said he suspected the teacher was trying to indoctrinate the students, not educate them.
“I highly doubt we’d find out that it was really a religion-neutral program,” Line said. “It’s pretty clear here that the teacher was using Easter as an excuse to convert the kids to Christianity. This is our understanding.
“You are talking about first year students. They will not have historical Bible discussions. It’s very easy for the teacher to cross the line,” Line said. “It looks like the teacher crossed the line and was using Easter to cross those lines and get the message of Easter with basic Christianity to the students.”
Line said he wondered if the teacher also gave the students a Kwanzaa coloring book page.
“I would feel more comfortable if the students had been given pages from Kwanzaa’s coloring book,” he said. “It would show that it was really about different cultures, different religions. I don’t think that’s the case at this point. We research what is here and ensure that teachers do not indoctrinate students for Christianity. We want to know the real facts.
Line said if the foundation was unhappy with Smith’s response to its call for an investigation, legal action against the school system was possible. In the letter to Smith, he said public schools are legally prohibited from promoting any religion and that using Easter “as a pretext to teach religious classes in a public school is unconstitutional.”
He said Tuesday that such religious instruction alienates some students.
“Everyone should feel loved being part of their school,” Line said. “Elementary students should not feel left out. That’s really why we do what we do. … If they want to violate student rights and force religion on students, there is always the possibility of future litigation. If the district’s position is that it is okay for teachers to push religion on students, that will always be a liability for the district. Why do you need a Bible verse to talk about Easter? »
Smith said he expects to respond to the foundation’s request within the next two weeks.
