High School Atheists Are Organizing -- Why Are Schools Pushing Back?

[magus_69]

High school non-theist groups are getting dedicated support from a national organization but their schools are flipping out. What does this mean for the future of atheism?

February 22, 2011 | High school student Brian Lisco just wanted to form a student club. A senior at Stephen Austin High School in the Houston suburbs, Lisco wanted to meet with

Comments

[xochitl]

When I was in high school I would have loved to have a nontheist organization, given that we had "Fellowship of Christian Athletes" an other Christian groups on campus. My school had mandatory religious "pep rallies" around Christmas, and also had several abstinence programs that were faith based. I figured out I was an atheist when I was 15, so it was really isolating to not know any other atheists.

[aviv_b]

Just curious - was this a public school or a private parochial school? (I'm assuming you are US educated from your profile - if I'm wrong, please excuse).

[xochitl]

Yep, it was a public school.

[aviv_b]

Yikes! Is that even legal?

[xochitl]

Probably not, but it's the Bible Belt, so nobody complained. (Except me, but who cared what a teenager thought?)

[luvlorn]

My high school only had about 3 Jewish kids and a handful of Atheists, Pagans, whathaveyou, and the Southern Baptists would hound you and try to convert you if you said you weren't christian in front of them. Coming previously from a school district that was primarily Catholic/Jewish and being Atheist, I wasn't down with the school organizing religious groups (people in the catholic/jewish school district threw a shitfit at any kind of faith-based education and was inclusive of more than one religious holiday in decorating and holiday concerts and such). So when Fellowship of Christian Athletes started, and all of them started wearing t-shirts to school I made a shirt mocking their slogan that said FUC (Fellowship of Un Christians