The Freedom From Religion Foundation is celebrating three recent victories protecting the constitutional separation of church and state in Florida and Georgia public schools.

In Tampa, Fla., FFRF took action against a religious assignment in the Hillsborough County Public Schools system. A parent reported that on Feb. 11, their child’s chorus teacher at Barrington Middle School required his entire sixth grade chorus class to write the following sentence 50 times during class instructional time: “God destroyed the earth by flooding seas for being evil and disobeying God’s commands.” According to the parent, the teacher gave the entire class the assignment as punishment for being disruptive during a previous class period, and the assignment was subject to classwide enforcement until everyone had finished it. 

The parent explained:
This incident made me feel deeply disturbed and alarmed as a parent. I was especially troubled that the sentence students were forced to write effectively equated the authority of the teacher with God’s authority and labeled normal sixth-grade behavior as “evil.” This framing is emotionally manipulative, inappropriate and harmful for children, particularly when imposed by an authority figure in a public school setting.

“Here, [the teacher] reportedly admitted to forcing his entire sixth grade chorus class to write a religious declaration, and he did not provide his students with any context as to why or how this sentence was possibly relevant to chorus,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the school district’s legal counsel. 

Thankfully, FFRF’s work paid off.

The Hillsborough County Public Schools parent informed FFRF that the principal at Barrington Middle School emailed her confirming that the assignment would be discontinued and that the teacher would not force students to write religious messages going forward.

FFRF’s work in Florida also extended to the Orange County Public Schools system in Orlando. A parent reported that a Stone Lakes Elementary School teacher had been reciting prayers every morning in front of her first grade students during the school’s “moment of silence.” The parent stated that the teacher prayed out loud, often beginning with “Dear Jesus,” and prayed for students “to avoid ‘wounds and sins.’” The teacher reportedly ended her prayers with phrases such as “In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Students were not allowed to begin speaking until she had finished her daily prayer, thereby forcing her first grade students to sit and listen to an overtly Christian prayer every morning during what was supposed to be a moment of silence.

The parent expressed concern because their child had begun asking them questions at home, such as whether they are Christian. The parents are raising their child in a nonreligious home and were disturbed by the classroom prayers. Additionally, the first grade class reportedly included at least a few students who have Muslim families as well, and the parent was concerned about how these prayers were impacting minority faith students. 

“First graders cannot simply leave the classroom without risking punishment, and it is unrealistic to expect students this young to recognize that their teacher is violating their constitutional rights,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the school system’s legal counsel. 

FFRF learned via an open records request that the school had taken action, providing the teacher with a written correction and verbal coaching to stop the prayers.

Finally, in Rome, Ga., FFRF was informed that the Floyd County Schools system was planning to display the Ten Commandments along with nine historical documents in all of its schools. According to the district employee who brought the news to FFRF, the campaign to display the Ten Commandments in the schools, called “the Ten Commandments Project,” was begun by a group of parents who later partnered with an organization called the Foundation for American Law and Government. Per a handout distributed at the Dec. 15, 2025, “Floyd County School District Founding Documents Presentation,” the Ten Commandments were to be displayed alongside nine actual historical documents, such as the Magna Carta. It appears that the project was intended to place copies of the Ten Commandments in schools, and the nine historical documents were later added, likely as a way to attempt to claim the Ten Commandments display was constitutional. 

“No court has upheld the display of the Ten Commandments in a public school, even when the Ten Commandments were among other displays,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district’s legal representation. 

The legal counsel for Floyd County Schools emailed FFRF with confirmation that action had been taken. “After review and consideration of your letter, Floyd County Schools has directed all school principals to remove the display of the Ten Commandments, to the extent any such school had already posted or displayed same,” I. Stewart Duggan wrote.

School districts have an obligation under the law to ensure they are not violating the rights of its students by proselytizing or using their position to push personal religious beliefs, FFRF pointed out to the school systems. Parents have the constitutional right to determine their children’s religious or nonreligious upbringing, not their children’s public school teachers or administration. Coercing students to write a religious message, forcing students to listen to an explicitly Christian prayer before being able to speak and forcing students to view a Ten Commandments display on school grounds all signal that the district favors one particular set of religious beliefs over all others. As much as 38 percent of the American population is non-Christian, including the almost 30 percent who are nonreligious. These districts’ actions needlessly marginalized and excluded students and parents who are part of those communities.

FFRF is delighted to have halted three serious constitutional violations affecting a captive audience of young students and will continue to fight to remove any and all religious intrusion in public schools, no matter its form.

“Public school districts unfortunately all too often fall prey to teachers or administrators who step outside constitutional boundaries and abuse their authority to push their personal religious beliefs on other people’s children,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “We are proud to do the work we do. Children deserve a space where they can learn and grow that must remain free from religious coercion.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members nationwide, including thousands of members in Florida and several hundred in Georgia, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.

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