A Florida high school student who dared to deviate from the approved morning announcement script and sign off with a quick “God bless America” has sparked an outcry that started with two atheists and led to legal threats from the American Humanist Association (AHA).
Fox News reported that two atheists at Yulee High School were angered at the student’s utterance. They then filed a complain with the AHA, which in turn, sent its legal arm, the Appignani Humanist Legal Center, to contact the school.
The school disciplined the student, who was not publicly named.
“It wasn’t part of the scripted morning announcements,” district spokeswoman Sharyl Wood said, Fox News reported. “The principal took the appropriate steps in speaking with the student and disciplining the student.”
The AHA was outraged.
“It is inappropriate and unlawful for a public school to start the school day with an official statement over the intercom stating, ’God bless America,’ for such a statement affirms God-belief, validates a theistic worldview and is invidious toward atheists and other nonbelievers,” the AHA wrote in a letter to the Yulee High School principal, Fox News said.
The atheist group also accused the student of violating the Constitution and law, and ordered the school to stop allowing such practices or face a lawsuit.
“The daily validation of the religious views of God-believers resigns atheists to second-class citizens,” AHA said. “Because attendance is mandatory, the students have no way of avoiding this daily message either.”
Principal Natasha Drake, meanwhile, wrote to the AHA and explained that the “student on his own accord made the statement” and has been directed to stop doing that.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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