Americans United last month demanded that a North Carolina public school district cease sponsoring proselytizing concerts by a religious musical group that violate public school students’ and families’ religious freedom.
Acting on behalf of a concerned family in the community, AU sent a letter to Davidson County Schools in Lexington, N.C., about the band 3 Heath Brothers.
AU Staff Attorney Ian Smith detailed how a March assembly held in an elementary school during the school day included religious music and the distribution of a 104-page children’s devotional and Bible study book — all in violation of our country’s constitutional promise of church-state separation and religious freedom.
AU’s letter notes the school district told concerned parents the concert had been “misrepresented” as an anti-bullying assembly. But, AU noted, public schools have a duty to vet outside groups coming in to present to students, and even a cursory glance of 3 Heath Brothers’ website would clearly show the group described as “a Christian band … the ‘boyband of Christian music.’”
The band’s website also includes a prominent advertisement for the band’s crowdfunding campaign to “double our impact in the lives of public school students! … Sharing Jesus in a place where it’s needed most.”
Davidson County Schools officials, Americans United asserted, have no excuse for not knowing the band’s concerts would have coercive religious content that is impermissible in public schools.
AU also sent a letter to the band’s management warning them that 3 Heath Brothers could be held legally liable for violating students’ and parents’ religious freedom rights when the band acts jointly with public schools to present assemblies containing religious content. Because public school students are a captive audience, concerts and other assemblies hosted by public schools during the school day must be secular and cannot contain religious content.
“Our country’s promise of church-state separation and religious freedom means that families, not public school officials, get to decide if, when and how children engage with religion,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. “Parents are understandably outraged that elementary school-age children had no choice but to sit through a coercive religious concert under the guise of it being an ‘anti-bullying’ assembly. Not on our watch. We demand that Davidson County Schools take the necessary steps to protect students’ religious freedom and ensure this never happens again.”