Religious recruiters banned from middle school after multiple complaints

After a series of complaints by parents and students spanning over a decade, Bainbridge Island School District in Bainbridge Island, Wash., will no longer allow youth pastors access to impressionable students during school hours.

Several concerned parents and students reported to FFRF that three youth pastors from local churches were regularly granted access to Woodward Middle School students during lunchtime. The pastors were associated with Young Life, a Christian organization whose mission is “ntroducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith.

The middle school previously received multiple complaints from both students and parents about the pastors at Youth Life. In 2000, the school attempted to develop policies meant to curb aggressive proselytizing in schools, but youth pastors actively circumvented the measures.

FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel sent a strongly worded letter to the district on Oct. 29, 2013, explaining why these multiple violations are so egregious, “It is both inappropriate and dangerous for schools to grant outsiders carte blanche access to minors — a captive audience — in a public school, let alone have that access to proselytize.”

http://ffrf.org/legal/other-legal-successes/item/21061-religious-recruiters-banned-from-middle-school-after-multiple-complaints-june-23-2014


Not in MY backyard, you don't.