The unnamed teacher is employed at Glencoe High School, part of Etowah County Schools, which includes the city of Gadsden in North Alabama.
In a letter to the school district, the Freedom from Religion Foundation claimed the teacher needs to be trained about her “constitutional obligation,” which is likely a reference to the Establishment Clause that is often cited to demand a religion-free public square.
"The district violates the Constitution when it allows its schools to display religious messages, including Bible verses," Chris Line, an FFRF attorney, wrote in the letter to the district.
FFRF says it learned about the alleged constitutional violation through one of its own Alabama members, but it wasn’t difficult to verify the teacher’s actions since she shares videos of the Bible verses on TikTok.
Keisha Russell, an attorney for First Liberty Institute, says she doesn’t have to view the TikTok video to know she shouldn’t trust an “legal analysis” coming from the atheist group.
“It's perfectly constitutional,” Russell says, “for a teacher to use quotes out of the Bible, as she would any other secular quote, or out of any book, or from any other famous person, to motivate or educate her students."
Kennedy praying case upheld free speech
In a challenge to the FFRF letter’s legal claims, Russell says the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly sided with the free exercise of religion and free speech guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. The court most recently upheld those rights in 2022, she says, in the Kennedy v Bremerton case. That ruling involved the praying football coach, Joe Kennedy, who was punished, then terminated, for praying on the football field after home games.
In that 6-3 ruling, the justices held Kennedy’s bosses in the Bremerton School District violated his free exercise rights by prohibiting him from praying.
First Liberty represented Kennedy in that landmark case, which stretched out for eight years before the high court’s ruling.
After the decision, FFRF tellingly denounced what it called the court’s “religion-pandering decision.” The atheist group also predicted other school employees would attempt to “push religion” on their students after Kennedy's court victory.
When asked what public schools should do when an FFRF letter shows up, Russell has a suggestion. “Throw that letter away,” she suggests.
