The Freedom From Religion Foundation says an Etowah County school teacher is “misusing her position” by displaying Bible verses in class.
The Wisconsin-based organization sent a letter to Etowah County Superintendent Alan Cosby on Friday, saying the teacher at Glencoe High School, whose name was redacted, writes a Bible verse on her whiteboard each day. She recently posted a video to TikTok showing this, according to the group.
The foundation said it learned of the practice from a “concerned District community member.”
The FFRF last year accused the same school system of “soliciting religious organizations to proselytize and attempt(ing) to convert its students in exchange for donations.”
Attempts to reach Etowah County Schools for comment were not immediately successful.
The foundation contends that publicly posting a Bible verse displays favoritism toward religion, and particularly toward Christianity. The practice also alienates students who are religiously unaffiliated, the foundation stated.
“The district violates the Constitution when it allows its schools to display religious messages, including bible verses,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line stated in a letter to Cosby.
The foundation is calling on the district to end the practice, as well as train teachers to “understand their constitutional obligation not to promote their personal religious beliefs in the classroom.”
Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said religious decisions should be made by individual families.
“By proselytizing students, this teacher is showing that she’s willing to put her personal beliefs — which public school students may not share — before the rights of students and her constitutional obligations,” Gaylor said. “It is not a public school teacher’s decision as to what, if any, gods their students worship.”
