A Florida elementary school has dissolved its Fellowship of Christian Athletes club after the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist activist group, pressured them to do so.
Hamilton County School district had allowed the North Central Florida Fellowship of Christian Athletes to begin a new club at Hamilton Elementary, according to a statement from FFRF, an organization that says it exists “to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church.”
The elementary school had announced on Facebook in late January that it was organizing a “new huddle” at the school. A little more than a week later, FFRF confronted the district about the group.
“The district’s assistant superintendent informed FFRF’s complainant that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is an official ‘student-led’ organization at Hamilton Elementary,” reads the press statement. “The response made it clear that the school was allowing a religious club for children at an elementary school during the school day.”
On Mar. 29, Samantha F. Lawrence, a legal fellow for FFRF, sent a letter to the school district requesting they disband the group.
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“Students have the First Amendment right to be free from religious indoctrination in their public schools. While the Equal Access Act protects students’ right to form religious clubs in secondary schools, it does not apply to elementary schools,” Lawrence argued in her letter.
“Elementary students are too young to truly run a club entirely on their own initiative with no input from school staff or outside adults,” she claimed.
Lawrence demanded an investigation be made into the club, adding, “Any claims that the Hamilton Elementary FCA club is ‘student-led’ are at best naïve and at worst dishonest.”
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