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Permalink Reply by Kevin McShane on May 2, 2009 at 1:51am

For some reason, the site won't let me add you as a friend. o_o

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on May 2, 2009 at 1:52am

strange. no worries, i went ahead and added you to mine.

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Permalink Reply by Stacy B on May 2, 2009 at 4:45am

You definitely have a case here if the group is organized by a teacher. Let me first say that there is not a brick wall between religion and school. Just because it has to do with religion does not mean it can't be in a school. Having the Bible and other Christian books in the library is not a problem in and of itself. Having religious groups in school (after hours) is fine. What is a problem is when teachers become involved, the school endorses any one group or religion at all, or some religions/belief systems are not allowed the same rights as others.

Let's start with this Christian group: it absolutely cannot be organized by a teacher. In fact, school faculty shouldn't be involved in the group at all. If they want to have a religious group outside of school that is not at all tied to the school, that's fine, but if they do this at school and the teacher gets involved or if the teacher were involved outside of school and was in any way representing the school then that would be a problem. I wouldn't see a problem with the Christian group putting up fliers or being announced in the school bulletin as long as all non-school groups receive the same treatment.

Things you can do: of course you can and should contact the ACLU. I'm sure they have a method down for alerting schools of these kinds of violations. If you're okay with tackling it yourself then by all means read up on the laws and share that info with the school administrators. I'd also look into the school's own written policies on this to see if they're upholding their own policies. Another thing you can do is send an anonymous letter along with information regarding the rules on religious school groups. Your best argument - it's simply not legal for the faculty to get involved in these groups. Religious groups have to meet after school hours for the same reason that faculty can't get involved - the school can't promote any religion.

http://supreme.justia.com/constitution/amendment-01/04-access-to-pu...
You'll notice that the Supreme Court absolutely upholds the right of religious groups to use school facilities to meet, BUT that it also strictly notes that government (which would include school faculty at a public school) cannot promote any one religion over another.

As for the library, while there are a variety of religious books in the catalog, even re: Satanism, I did notice some interesting trends. There are a lot of books discussing the evolution/creationism debate, though I couldn't tell if any of them supported creationism. At least one school in your district has Michael Behe's tripe refuting evolution, but there was not a single book by Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, or Sam Harris. The few books by Richard Dawkins were strictly about biology. Ann Coulter, Joel Osteen, and Billy Graham, however, all have books represented in district libraries. I would include in any letter you send to the school administrators a list of the biggest books opposing religion that are out there - The God Delusion, God is Not Great, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Blind Watchmaker, etc. - as suggested acquisitions in order to provide a broader spectrum of books related to religion. While they aren't exactly promoting one religion over another, they are light on books related to non-religion and heavy on Christian books.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin McShane on May 2, 2009 at 4:59am

According to my sources at least, there is a teacher leading the support of this group. I have to confirm it. If it is true, note that I will look into these matters. As for the issue on the books. I am going to have my group that will still be in school next year fill a recommendation form out requesting those books that oppose religion. All students have access to this folder where students write down books they want to have the library buy. If for some reason, the library does not look into it, we will question why they did not review our selection and take them into consideration. The rest goes on from there.
Thats very interesting. They have a book refuting evolution but not a single one refuting creationism. Thats not at all surprising.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Brown on May 4, 2009 at 6:40pm

Good luck Kevin

I really admire what you;re doing here, even if it's totally odd for me (here in NZ).
I agree with your advisors here .. fight it, but don't lose your head, stay calm and above all rational.

All the best and good luck.

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Permalink Reply by Johnny on May 4, 2009 at 7:27pm

Be sure to check out Matthew LaClair; not the exact same scenario, but he's fought the school board and won.

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