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    This is the letter sent to Rapides Parish Schools Superintendent Jeff Powell after a Gideon booklet, "The Life Book," was distributed to students at Lessie Moore Elementary School in Pineville on April 9.

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    Freedom From Religion Foundation letter to Rapides Schools Superintendent Jeff Powell

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    This is the letter sent to Rapides Parish Schools Superintendent Jeff Powell after a Gideon booklet, "The Life Book," was distributed to students at Lessie Moore Elementary School in Pineville on April 9.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    53 views3 pages

    Freedom From Religion Foundation Letter To Rapides Schools Superintendent Jeff Powell

    Uploaded by

    The Town Talk
    This is the letter sent to Rapides Parish Schools Superintendent Jeff Powell after a Gideon booklet, "The Life Book," was distributed to students at Lessie Moore Elementary School in Pineville on April 9.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    of 3

    April 22, 2024

    SENT VIA EMAIL & U.S. MAIL: [email protected]

    Superintendent Jeff Powell


    Rapides Parish Schools
    P.O. Box 7117
    Alexandria, LA 71306

    Re: Unconstitutional religious material distribution

    Dear Superintendent Powell:

    I am writing on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) regarding an


    unconstitutional religious material distribution at Lessie Moore Elementary School. FFRF is a
    national nonprofit organization with over 40,000 members across the country, including
    members in Louisiana. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation
    between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.

    A concerned community parent informs us that an outside church—Journey Church—distributed


    “The Life Book” at Lessie Moore Elementary during school hours on or around April 9, 2024.
    Our complainant notes that students finished breakfast before the church members handed out
    The Life Book on school property. The Life Book contained passages from the bible with
    annotations from fictitious characters who “read along” with the reader. The Life Book contained
    bible passages and biblical themes throughout including the stories of Jesus and Mary. The Life
    Book quotes several New Testament passages with citations. The Life book is published by
    Gideons International. According to its official website, The Life Book’s sole purpose is to
    “saturat[e] high schools with god’s word.”1 One portion of the book speaks exclusively about sex
    and sexuality. Our complainant felt that was inappropriate for their third-grade child. Lessie
    Moore Elementary teaches students from Pre-K to third grade. We understand administrators
    instructed students to turn the bibles in later that day.

    We ask the District to investigate and ensure that religious groups are not allowed to distribute
    religious literature on school grounds.

    It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for the District to offer the Gideons unique access to
    students in order to indoctrinate them and distribute religious materials. The District cannot
    allow its schools to be used as recruiting grounds for religious missions. It is well-settled law that
    public schools may not show favoritism toward nor coerce belief or participation in religion.
    Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000); Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577 (1992);
    Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985); Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1967); Sch. Dist. of
    Abington Twp. v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203 (1963); Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962); McCollum

    1
    https://thelifebook.com/youthleaders.
    v. Bd. of Ed., 333 U.S. 203 (1948). By allowing religious representatives special access to
    distribute religious material to elementary school students, the District displays blatant favoritism
    for religion over nonreligion and Christianity above all other faiths.

    Here, the school allowed one church group to push, present, and distribute one narrow
    interpretation of Christianity onto young students who are particularly impressionable. Even
    “The Life Book” website only contemplates its literature going to high school students. Instead, a
    religious text was given to these young students with the hope that they read it as truth—like
    everything else they get from school. That is jarring.

    Yet more jarring is the explicitly sexual nature of the last section in The Life Book, titled
    “Relationships and Sex.” This section talks about god’s wish for humans to not engage in
    premarital sex, both with biblical text and annotations. For instance, one annotation compares
    premarital sex—and promiscuity—to slavery. One of the fictitious characters writes:

    So many of my friends think they are ready for sex. But what do we really know?
    Are we ready for babies, STDs, and for broken hearts? I have a really good friend
    who thought she and her boyfriend were ready for sex, so they went ahead and
    had it. She thought it was love, but found out pretty fast it wasn’t. She gave up her
    heart to a guy who didn’t really care, and dumped her a few weeks later. But then
    she figured that since she had already had sex once, it wasn’t a big deal to do it
    again… and again… and again. That is what being a “slave” means – she couldn’t
    stop herself even though she hated herself more and more every time she had sex
    with another guy. That’s why I think God saves sex for marriage – Tay2

    Presumably, the school did not screen or otherwise view the nature of the literature being
    distributed on its campus. Giving a pass to churches on account of them being churches
    demonstrates a real bias that no other outside group would have. Assuming that churches and
    their agents are well-meaning and incapable of malicious or otherwise delinquent conduct itself
    shows a strong unconscious bias toward minority religions and the non-religious. We are pleased
    the school collected The Life Book after discovering its obscene nature.

    But the damage was done. Our complainant notes that their child, who did not take a Life Book,
    was shown “The Sex Book,” as their peers called it, by their peers. The children have absorbed
    the content and recollecting the book later that day was too late.

    Further, this religious literature distribution needlessly alienates all students and families, such as
    our complainant and their child. Thirty-seven percent of the American population is
    non-Christian, including the almost thirty percent who are nonreligious.3 At least a third of

    2
    The Life Book at page 102. https://thelifebook.com/read.
    3
    Gregory A. Smith, Religious ‘Nones’ in America: Who They Are and What They Believe, Pew Research Center,
    Jan. 24, 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are
    -and-what-they-believe/.

    2
    Generation Z (those born after 1996) have no religion,4 with a recent survey revealing almost
    half of Gen Z qualify as “nones.”5

    The District should not maintain a policy whereby any private organization may take advantage
    of school resources to further its personal goals. FFRF has sought to distribute its own literature
    in schools with overly broad distribution policies, and may seek to do so in any school district
    that maintains an open forum.6 If a public school has a policy that allows organizations to
    distribute religious materials to students, the school cannot discriminate against any religious or
    nonreligious viewpoint. The best solution is a policy that does not allow third-party literature
    distribution.

    In order to respect students’ First Amendment rights, the District must ensure that Lessie Moore
    Elementary ceases allowing churches to distribute religious literature to students while on school
    property, during school hours. Please respond in writing with the steps the District is taking to
    address this constitutional violation. Thank you for your time and attention.

    Sincerely,

    Hirsh M. Joshi
    Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow
    Freedom From Religion Foundation

    4
    Samuel J. Abrams, Perspective: Why even secular people should worry about Gen Z’s lack of faith, Deseret News,
    Mar. 4, 2023, www.deseret.com/2023/3/4/23617175/gen-z-faith-religious-nones-civic-life-voluntees-charity.
    5
    2022 Cooperative Election Study of 60,000 respondents, analyzed by Ryan P. Burge, www.
    religioninpublic.blog/2023/04/03/gen-z-and-religion-in-2022/.
    6
    See http://goo.gl/9AIp9s.

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