More than 100 students walked out at Huntington High School in Huntington, West Virginia, to protest a religious revival in school.
The students “staged a walkout to protest a school-sanctioned religious revival that some of their teachers required them to attend.”
Earlier this week, teachers told students that during a non-instructive class period called COMPASS, they had to go to an assembly where a Christian prayer revival was set to take place. At the assembly, teens were told to close their eyes, raise their arms in prayer and give their lives to Jesus Christ. They were also told that if they didn’t follow the Bible, they would go to hell after they died.
According to reporting from The Associated Press, one student texted his parent, asking, “Is this legal?”
The tenets of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — and a number of Supreme Court rulings — suggest that it was not. According to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, public schools cannot prevent students from expressing or sharing religious beliefs during school hours. However, school officials cannot impose prayer or other religious practices in the building, even if students are not required to take part; to do so constitutes a violation of students’ religious freedom.
Many students at Huntington High School — and their parents — agreed that the revival was not appropriate, and that it violated students’ rights.
“I don’t think any kind of religious official should be hosted in a taxpayer-funded building with the express purpose of trying to convince minors to become baptized after school hours,” said senior Max Nibert, one of the students who led the walkout. “My rights are non-negotiable…”
A spokesperson for Cabell County Schools claimed that the event was optional, and that two teachers made a mistake when they told students they were required to attend.
But once students were at the revival and tried to leave, some were told they couldn’t do so. A Jewish student reported being told they “needed to stay” at the assembly because the classroom where they would otherwise go was locked and unsupervised.
In other words, while the event may have been quietly billed as optional, there were no other options available for students who didn’t want to attend.
How long will it be until the U.S. Supreme Court, with its new-found devotion to unrestricted religious liberty, rules that religious observances in the schools are hunky-dory?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Chris Rufo, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute who is pushing curriculum transparency, said in a Twitter message last month that the proposals will “bait the Left” into appearing to oppose transparency. He said that will raise the question of what Democrats have to hide — which will help Republican candidates.
“The strategy here is to use a non-threatening, liberal value — ‘transparency’ — to force ideological actors to undergo public scrutiny,” Rufo tweeted, explaining that the GOP proposals will “give parents a powerful check on bureaucratic power.”
Respected member of the ed reform echo chamber explaining how he plans to use public schools to push his ideological and political agenda.None of this has anything to do with “improving public schools” – he doesn’t even bother to claim that.
Not a word of pushback to any of this from any of the rest of the echo chamber, including the huge, lavishly funded ed reform foundations who employ hundreds of people. I guess there’s lockstep agreement in the echo chamber on this as as on all “reforms”.
All those ed reform “foundations” and lobbying groups and university departments – thousands of full time employees- and not a word of dissent or even a debate.
Let’s list what the ed reform “movement” has accomplished for public schools since the start of the pandemic: massive expansion of vouchers, “snitch” laws targeting public school teachers, and voucher/mask protests at school board meetings and now campaigns for Republican candidates conducted in and around our schools.
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-ohio-education-elections-9ff6cfd34f811e91335db2b1a20e7754
“…to force ideological actors to undergo public scrutiny,” Rufo tweeted, explaining that the GOP proposals will “give parents a powerful check on bureaucratic power.” ”
But of course, it just changes the location of bureaucratic power away from concerned parents and places that location in the hands of a few censorship advocates. It effectively isolates the decision-making process away from anyone who has a feel for truth, giving it to zealots instead.
well said
Agree with Ciede-
A strategy to capitalize on ignorance, weaponize it, distill it, and then relaunch more concentrated, effective campaigns based on lies that are “legitimized” by other lies which are generally race-based at their core.
It Was FREE Advertising For Christ Temple Church At High School Assembly!
More than 100 students staged a walkout at their West Virginia high school after an assembly by an evangelical Christian preacher told them they’d go to hell if they did not follow the Bible.
Traveling preacher Nik Walker, 25, held a sermon last week at Huntington High School, about 50 miles west of Charleston, where he encouraged pupils to also bring their families to nearby Christ Temple Church.
Cabell County Schools confirmed the preacher’s event at the school, which was organized by the school’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
“I don’t think any kind of religious official should be hosted in a taxpayer-funded building with the express purpose of trying to convince minors to become baptized after school hours,” said Nibert, the senior who spoke to the AP.
Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes the separation of church and state, wrote in a letter to the school district that it cannot “allow its schools to be used as recruiting grounds for churches.”
“It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the District to offer religious leaders unique access to preach and proselytize students during school hours on school property,” the letter said.
If folks like the preacher telling people they will go to hell if they don’t do as he says are going to Heaven, I’d like what is behind curtain number three, thank you very much.
But I guess we should just be glad that he didn’t tell the students they’d go to Hell if they didn’t vote for Trump.i n 2024.
Cuz just the opposite is actually true.: They’ll go the Hell if they do.
Cuz being with folks like that preacher for all eternity sounds like the definition of Hell to me.
What happening in Virginia after Trumpist Republicans swept in and took over a blue state after the last election should be a warning to all the rational, elligible voters in the United States, that if you don’t vote, you may end up regretting it horribly after you’ve lost the right to vote.
Why would one expect these xtian regressive fundies to obey the law. The only law they obey is the one they choose from the list of approved Sky-Daddy laws which obvious for us heathens who don’t know is above puny human law.