Reading Time: 3 minutes Why did the taxpayer-funded Weatherford College, a community college in Texas, donate “39 acres” of land, six buildings, and a “large parking lot” to a private Christian institution? That’s the question the Freedom From Religion Foundation wants to know because they believe that transfer is unconstitutional. Over a year ago, Weatherford College donated its entire […]
education
Posted inPolitics
If Iowa passes a voucher bill, this guy says he’ll open up a Satanic school
Reading Time: 3 minutes If Republican leaders in Iowa give millions of dollars to private religious schools through a controversial voucher program, there’s a chance it’ll support a Satanic school as well. That’s what non-theist Joe Stutler told lawmakers on Tuesday during a hearing for House Study Bill 1, a piece of legislation that’s being called a “top priority” […]
Posted inCritical thinking
The face of Islam
Reading Time: 5 minutes When art history instructor Erika López Prater wanted to show a painting of Muhammad in her class at Hamline University last semester, she took every precaution. It was a 14th-century work by a Muslim for a Muslim audience honoring the last prophet of Islam. She repeatedly warned students that she would show the picture, both […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
And I said nothing: Teaching in rural schools
Reading Time: 7 minutes “See that man?” said the principal during our lunch interview, pointing a few tables down. “He is a good man, a man I admire, because he is a man of God first, a family man second, and one heck of an athlete. Do you understand what I am saying?” I didn’t know at the time that it’s illegal to ask someone their religion in a job interview. This was his way of trying to ensure that I understood what was important to him, and by extension, the school. I needed a job, so I said nothing.
Posted inEducation
A high school coach joked about preaching Satanism. Then he got fired.
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ethan Gabel, a math teacher at Kirksville High School in Missouri since 2012 and the head coach of the Boys and Girls Cross Country teams since 2016, won’t be returning in the latter role next season after Christians interpreted his satirical tweets to mean he wanted to impose Satanism upon students. The chaos began in late […]
Posted inLGBTQ News
Schools lose fight for anonymity after censored tours at human rights museum
Reading Time: 3 minutes Two Christian schools that asked the Canadian Museum for Human Rights to censor the LGBTQ section of the museum when they visited for field trips have lost a lawsuit to keep their names out of the news. Between 2015 and 2017, the museum catered to the bigoted whims of faith-based schools. Tour guides, some of […]
Posted inEducation
SC school district gives clergy members say in which books are banned
Reading Time: 4 minutes The Board of Trustees for the Greenville County Schools in South Carolina wants clergy members to be able to review what books are appropriate for public school students, and they may face a legal challenge if they go through with it. Recently, there’s been a push by conservative school boards to ban books deemed inappropriate […]
Posted inEducation
After School Satan Club delayed after VA school board cites safety concerns
Reading Time: 4 minutes A proposed After School Satan Club at B M Williams Primary (part of Virginia’s Chesapeake Public Schools) has had its first meeting delayed through January after the school board cited safety concerns. As I’ve written about before, ASS Clubs do not promote Satan, Satanic beliefs, Satanism, or anything else like it. The Satanic Temple, which sponsors […]
Posted inEducation
Christian teacher fired after rudely interrupting Muslim students mid-prayer
Reading Time: 2 minutes A teacher at Franklin Academy, a public charter school in Florida, has been fired after she interrupted three Muslim students in the middle of a prayer. She stepped on their hands during the sacred ritual and dismissively calling their worship “magic.” That’s especially ironic coming from a Christian, since the same faculty member said, “I […]
Posted inEducation
Victim’s home vandalized after alleging abuse at Saskatoon Christian school
Reading Time: 3 minutes Caitlin Erickson, a woman who’s been speaking out against an abusive Christian school she attended in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, had her home vandalized this week. It came days after she and two other former classmates urged the provincial legislature to crack down on the school’s fundamentalist curriculum. Erickson made headlines in August after she and several […]