A Georgia school district is being urged to protect its students’ rights to religious expression after an atheist group filed a complaint over student-led prayers at its high school football games.
First Liberty Institute Special Counsel Jeremy Dys has called on Valdosta City Schools to “provide a clear policy that allows students to have an opportunity to say whatever they’d like to say ahead of their games.”
The legal firm, which exclusively defends religious liberty, recently sent a letter to William Cason, superintendent of Valdosta City Schools, explaining “the relevant law concerning such student religious expression” and recommending the adoption of “a model policy fully protecting student religious expression for Valdosta City Schools students.”
Dys told the Christian Post a “Model Policy Governing Voluntary Religious Expression in Public Schools, based on The Texas Student Religious Viewpoint Act, makes it the responsibility of every school official to maximize the student religious liberty on campus and that includes the expressions of their religious viewpoints.” He mentioned that The Texas Student Religious Viewpoint Act, passed in 2007, has “never been challenged because … it really can’t be.”
Earlier this month on Oct. 14, the Freedom from Religion Foundation sent a letter to Valdosta City Schools on behalf of a “concerned local resident” who complained that the Oct. 9 football game began with a student-led prayer.