Friend,

Across America, students and their families are returning to public schools and a different religious freedom landscape thanks to the Supreme Court’s Kennedy v. Bremerton School District decision in June.

Religious extremists feel emboldened to treat our public schools as mission fields now that the ultra-conservative bloc of the Supreme Court sided with a public high school football coach who was praying on the field with students. But we need to make clear that students still have extensive religious freedom rights in public schools—and we’ll fight to protect them.

Americans United is ready to help any students and families whose religious freedom is being violated. We’ve updated our Know Your Rights guides since the Supreme Court’s decision. These guides clarify the religious freedom rights of students and their parents in public schools, as well as the rights and responsibilities of public school employees.

The Kennedy case didn’t change decades of established law that prevents government employees from pressuring students to pray in public schools, or other key cases relating to religion in public schools. It’s still the law of the land that public schools can’t coerce students, have official prayers at school events, teach creationism or other religious doctrines, or display religious iconography or messages on school property.

But we know Christian nationalists will use the decision as an open invitation to keep pushing the envelope on school-sponsored prayer and further undermine church-state separation.

Our public schools are already under a broad attack from religious extremists and their political allies who want to force all of us—especially impressionable students—to live by their beliefs. We owe it to our children to ensure their public schools—the building blocks of our diverse society—are welcoming, inclusive and free of religious coercion.

Protect church-state separation and our public schools: Click here to review and share these Know Your Rights guides. And let’s make sure public school students and their families know our attorneys will review all potential religious freedom violations that are reported to us at www.au.org/report-a-violation.

Together, protecting religious freedom in our public schools will remain a core part of AU’s mission, as it has since we were founded 75 years ago.

Warmest regards,

Andrew L. Seidel
VP of Strategic Communications