After Satanists Plan to Give Away Coloring Books, School Board Considers Banning Religious Distributions Altogether: "It’s like the nuclear option of church/state separation cases. When nothing else works, count on Satanists to settle the matter!"
In January of 2013, World Changers of Florida, Inc. held Bible distributions at a number of public high schools in Orange County, Florida. No student would be forced to take one, but there would be a table set up where interested students could take a copy if they wanted:
This alone could have been illegal, but the Orange County School Board agreed that non-Christian groups could also have a distribution if they wanted.
When the Central Florida Freethought Community (CFFC) called their bluff and planned their own giveaways, they were heavily censored. Many of their books, they were told, could not be given away, including titles such as Sam Harris‘ Letter to a Christian Nation and Ibn Warraq‘s Why I am Not a Muslim.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation didn’t buy their explanations for why the books were censored and filed a federal lawsuit against the district in June of 2013. Before the lawsuit was ruled upon, the district agreed to let the atheists give away whatever books they wanted.
But, for whatever reason, the atheists never bothered to submit a formal request to do a distribution. My assumption here is that, because the giveaway was now open to everyone, they had no need to push this any further. (***Edit***: CFFC’s David Williamson tells me they didn’t do the giveaway because the lawsuit was still ongoing, and they were not notified that the board decided not to censor their materials until after it was too late to participate.)
Then the fun began.
The Satanic Temple announced earlier this year that they would file a formal request to do a giveaway of materials about Satanism, which eventually morphed into a single fantastic coloring book:
After all of this, the Orange County School Board is finally — finally! — considering not allowing outside groups to do book distributions:
Worried about facing national ridicule if a Satanic group is allowed to give out coloring books to children, the Orange County School Board moved Thursday toward preventing any outside group from distributing religious materials on campus.
…
The board discussed the issue during a workshop Thursday. The earliest it could vote to change the policy would be late January or early February, officials said.
“This really has, frankly, gotten out of hand,” said chairman Bill Sublette. “I think we’ve seen a group or groups take advantage of the open forum we’ve had.”
more
After Satanists Plan to Give Away Coloring Books, School Board Considers Banning Religious Distributions Altogether
In January of 2013, World Changers of Florida, Inc. held Bible distributions at a number of public high schools in Orange County, Florida. No student would be forced to take one, but there would be a table set up where interested students could take a copy if they wanted:
This alone could have been illegal, but the Orange County School Board agreed that non-Christian groups could also have a distribution if they wanted.
When the Central Florida Freethought Community (CFFC) called their bluff and planned their own giveaways, they were heavily censored. Many of their books, they were told, could not be given away, including titles such as Sam Harris‘ Letter to a Christian Nation and Ibn Warraq‘s Why I am Not a Muslim.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation didn’t buy their explanations for why the books were censored and filed a federal lawsuit against the district in June of 2013. Before the lawsuit was ruled upon, the district agreed to let the atheists give away whatever books they wanted.
But, for whatever reason, the atheists never bothered to submit a formal request to do a distribution. My assumption here is that, because the giveaway was now open to everyone, they had no need to push this any further. (***Edit***: CFFC’s David Williamson tells me they didn’t do the giveaway because the lawsuit was still ongoing, and they were not notified that the board decided not to censor their materials until after it was too late to participate.)
Then the fun began.
The Satanic Temple announced earlier this year that they would file a formal request to do a giveaway of materials about Satanism, which eventually morphed into a single fantastic coloring book:
After all of this, the Orange County School Board is finally — finally! — considering not allowing outside groups to do book distributions:
Worried about facing national ridicule if a Satanic group is allowed to give out coloring books to children, the Orange County School Board moved Thursday toward preventing any outside group from distributing religious materials on campus.
…
The board discussed the issue during a workshop Thursday. The earliest it could vote to change the policy would be late January or early February, officials said.
“This really has, frankly, gotten out of hand,” said chairman Bill Sublette. “I think we’ve seen a group or groups take advantage of the open forum we’ve had.”
more
After Satanists Plan to Give Away Coloring Books, School Board Considers Banning Religious Distributions Altogether
