Kentucky High School Removes Bible Verse From Locker Room Following Atheist Group Complaint

A Kentucky high school removed a Bible verse from the locker room after a “concerned area resident” complained. In November, Letcher County Public Schools in Whitesburg, Ky. received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) claiming that the message above the lockers, as well as two other religious messages at other schools in the district, “violates the Constitution” by displaying “religious symbols or messages.”

Meaww reported that the organization asked that the district remove all religious messaging and iconography from public school property “in recognition of its constitutional obligation to remain neutral towards religion.”

“Courts have continually held that school districts may not display religious messages or iconography in public schools,” wrote FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line in the letter of complaint. “These religious displays are particularly inappropriate, given that about 38 percent of Americans born after 1987 are not religious.”

Kentucky high school removes Bible verse after atheist group complains https://t.co/NlTvNk8jLQ pic.twitter.com/5tncf5lGhf

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The Bible message written on the wall of the Letcher County Central High School athletic locker room said, “But the Lord is with me like a Mighty Warrior” (Jeremiah 20:11). School officials removed it in February.

A bulletin board message in Fleming Neon Middle School was also removed, “Jesus is my savior You can't scare me!”

A prayer for children on the Martha Jane Potter Elementary School's Facebook page at the beginning of the school year was also taken down.

“The bulletin board has been replaced, the Facebook post has been removed, and the locker room has been repainted,” Superintendent Denise Yonts wrote in a February letter to the FFRF. The Wisconsin-base atheist group praised Yonts’s actions.

“We applaud the district for taking action to remedy this violation,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, said in a statement. “Students in our public schools are free to practice any religion they choose — or none at all.”

On the other hand, a religious freedom law firm called First Liberty Institute said that the district may have acted too soon. “It is unfortunate that the school took such a drastic step before fully vetting the complaint and doing a proper investigation of the background facts,” Hiram Sasser, general counsel for First Liberty, said. “It may be the case that the school committed a First Amendment violation by erasing the messages, but until a full investigation is done, it’s impossible to know the correct legal course.”