A Texas public school superintendent won't stop promoting Christianity at work

Rusk ISD Superintendent Grey Burton said he wanted to tell FFRF, "I hope you enjoy your permanent vacation at the only place hotter than Texas in August"

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The headline on a local news website sounded alarming: “FFRF sends three letters to Rusk ISD to stop student led prayers.”

Why would the Freedom From Religion Foundation attempt to stop student-led prayers when, as long as I’ve known them, they’ve repeatedly defended those? FFRF and other church/state separation groups go after coercive prayers by teachers, coaches, and administrators. They stop adults from pushing their faith on kids. But they never go after students who pray on their own.

So what the hell was going on here?

The KETK article by Ashlyn Anderson explained that FFRF had sent those letters to the district “to stop their student-led prayers before football games, claiming they are unconstitutional.” It didn’t elaborate on what the prayers were like.

The news segment that went along with the article perpetuated the same argument: that atheists were trying to stop students’ constitutional right to pray.

The article quoted Rusk Independent School District Superintendent Grey Burton defending the practice, FFRF legal fellow Sammi Lawrence saying “It violates the First Amendment, even if a student is the one delivering the prayer,” and a political science professor claiming “as long as the government in a public school is not leading [or] composing the prayer, they have to… allow [students] to freely exercise their faith as well.”

All of that sounds like a dramatic overreach for FFRF. Why would they get in the way of student-led prayer?

The answer is simple: The reporters didn’t give viewers all the relevant information.

Rusk ISD (Screenshot via YouTube)

Here’s what actually happened.

Back in December, FFRF’s Lawrence sent a letter to the district after learning that a student had been allowed to deliver a prayer over the loudspeaker before the Homecoming game. It was a Christian prayer that was clearly pre-written:

… We just ask you to touch in our community. Touch Texas right now. We need you in our community. If we ever needed you before, God, we need you right now. America needs you. We need you, God. You see all the war that’s going on. We just ask you to have your way and protection right now, God. Have your way right now, in Jesus’ name.

You see the football players right now. We ask you to touch each and every one of them, from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet, God. I rebuke the devil right now, in the name of Jesus, he shall not come near, not one inch, not even a centimeter, God. We just ask you to touch the cheerleaders, touch the band students, touch the drill team, right now. Have your way, God. Have your way, God. And we say “yes” to your will, God. “Yes” to your way, God. Touch us right now. Lord, we just ask you to come on in this football game. Lord, don’t let no strife, nothing like that happen, God. Let it be peaceful. Let us have a good game. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

That wasn’t a private Christian prayer led by a student. That was a school-sanctioned prayer that just happened to be delivered by a student. (It’s not like students can just hop on the microphone to say whatever they want before a game.)

As FFRF rightly noted, nothing about that is legal:

Like the prayer practices in [the Supreme Court case] Santa Fe, the prayers delivered at the Rusk HS football games are inappropriate and unconstitutional. Not only is the school, and thus the District, showing favoritism towards religion and coercing participation in these prayers by holding them during schools-sponsored events, but it is also providing the prayer-giver with the PA system needed to impose these prayers on attendees. Public school events must be secular to protect the freedom of conscience of all students.

If the district’s defense was the recent Bremerton case, in which a public school football coach was allowed to “privately” pray at midfield after a game, FFRF said that didn’t apply in this case because those prayers weren’t “publicly broadcast or recited to a captive audience.”

It was a sensible demand! What the district was doing was illegal. They needed to stop.

But the district never responded to that letter.

Then things got worse.

In April, the school district posted an image on its official Facebook page urging people to apply to work there. They said the district offered “competitive salaries,” a safe place to work, and “Strong Christian-faith Based Community / Traditional Values.”

What?! What did that even mean? What traditional values? Was that supposed to be an admission that LGBTQ people were not accepted? That Jews and Muslims weren’t welcome there? That open atheists weren’t going to be hired?

So FFRF’s Lawrence sent them another letter.

We write to request that the District cease illegally seeking out and favoring Christian job applicants in violation of both the Constitution and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

…

When a public school district specifically seeks out and preferences job candidates who are Christian, it displays blatant favoritism toward religion over nonreligion, and Christianity above all other faiths. It is squarely unconstitutional for a public school to prefer applicants of a particular religion.

She didn’t get a response to that either.

And then, in June, during the graduation ceremony, a student delivered an invocation prayer. It was hardly spontaneous. Before she spoke, Principal Jon Luna asked the audience to stand and remove their hats while the student delivered “our invocation” to the Christian god (48:33 mark):

… Please bow your head in prayer with me.

Dear Lord, first, I want to say “thank you.” Thank you for this day, and thank you for bringing all of the class of 2024 together one last time…

…

… Right now, Lord, I pray for each and every one of my classmates. I ask that as we go out into this crazy, scary world that you will give us strength and guidance. I pray that as we go through our day to day lives, that we will remember to do all that we do for your glory.

Lord, give us wisdom to be the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be in this world. Help us to know that through the highs and the lows you’re right there with us guiding us and walking with us.

Besides the fact that courts have repeatedly struck down school-sponsored prayers like that one, specifically at graduations, it was also a slap in the face to the non-Christian graduates and their families who deserved a celebration free from religious propaganda. None of that would change even if students cast a vote in favor of prayer at graduation either; you don’t get to violate the Constitution because a majority of people feel like it.

Lawrence explained the concern in a third letter to the district:

… Here, it appears that Rusk High School may have planned for a speaker to deliver a Christian invocation at its graduation ceremony and assigned a student speaker to the task of delivering the prayer in violation of the constitution.

It makes no difference how many students want prayer or wouldn’t be offended by prayer at their graduation ceremony; the courts have continually reaffirmed that the rights of minorities are nonetheless protected by the Constitution.

She also filed an open records request for information regarding the prayer.

This time, within a week, Superintendent Burton responded to her. He admitted that a student was selected in advance to deliver an invocation.

He added that the student who prayed over the loudspeaker at the football game earlier in the year was someone who requested the opportunity to pray before a game (as if that made it okay). As to the accusation that the district had violated the law, Burton called it “false and offensive.” (It’s neither.)

Finally, Burton said the advertisement on Facebook was also fine because it simply described the community accurately.

I could state country music is the music genre of choice in the Rusk community and that is also a fact. It does not mean country music fans will be the only people considered for employment.

It was a dubious analogy. Besides the fact that a popular music genre would be irrelevant in a job posting like that, there was the implication that “Christian” and “traditional” were synonymous with “good.” Very big wink wink vibes. Burton never bothered explaining what community values were “Christian.”

Burton concluded by saying he wasn’t going to put a stop to any of this:

… I can assure you that Rusk ISD will continue to allow prayer at our football games, graduation, and any other event we choose that is allowable and in accordance with statute. I can also assure you I will not respond to every letter you write out of ignorance that accuses the district of operating outside of the law anytime Christianity or Jesus is mentioned. I’ve been an educator for approximately 30 years and a Christian for longer. Just because I choose to serve in a rural East Texas town don’t assume I don’t know the law or how to operate within its boundaries. I am praying for you and your organization.

Those are the words of a man who cares more about promoting Christianity than serving his students. A man who doesn’t understand the law or its boundaries. A man who wants to fight an organization working on behalf of all the students instead of just the Christian ones.

And then Burton went on Facebook to complain some more.

First, he posted an image on the district’s official Facebook page calling for “20 days of prayer” for everyone in the district:

Then, in a post on his personal page that’s no longer public, he admitted that he personally sanctioned the loudspeaker prayers at football games, that he wanted to tell FFRF to go to Hell (“I hope you enjoy your permanent vacation at the only place hotter than Texas in August”), that he expects FFRF will complain about the “20 days of prayer” post, and that “we can't let groups or individuals continue removing God and Jesus from the fabric of our society.”

I made the decision 3 years ago to allow student-led prayers at our home football games instead of having a "moment of silence". This change was something our community and school board supported wholeheartedly. Since December, I have received 3 letters from the "Freedom From Religion Foundation" claiming it was unconstitutional to pray at the games and they wanted to know how I planned to stop it from occurring in the future. I had several things come to mind that I would like to say to this group like, "I hope you enjoy your permanent vacation at the only place hotter than Texas in August" but I decided against it. I simply told them we would continue to have prayer at any event we deemed appropriate and that I would be praying for their organization. Earlier today we posted "20 days of prayer for Rusk ISD" on our District Facebook page and I expect to receive another letter from this group. Regardless of their continued efforts to keep us from praying we will not stop. We want protection and blessings for our students, staff, and community. We also want the "peace that passes all understanding" in times of hardship and loss. Why would we turn to anyone but God?

If we want America to be great again then we can't let groups or individuals continue removing God and Jesus from the fabric of our society. We are letting these "moments of silence" become total silence and the results are evident in our Country. It's time to Bring God Back to the White House, the schoolhouse, the courthouse, and our own house. As a Nation we have been divided in numerous ways for numerous reasons throughout our history, but we always had that one thing that held us together, our true foundation and it was our Christian Faith. Each of us would fight to protect our family and to protect our freedom. It's time we started fighting to protect OUR FAITH.

#BringGodBack

It’s rare that an arsonist posts a picture of himself holding the match…

Burton has made it clear he wants to shove Christianity into his school district and polite requests aren’t going to change his ways. Texas has a law, the Religious Viewpoint Antidiscrimination Act, that openly permits students to pray at public events, but even that law comes with limitations. For example, it doesn’t limit such expressions to Christians and the district must make clear it doesn’t endorse whatever the student says. But that law doesn’t apply to what’s happening at Rusk ISD, where Christianity is given a green light with the explicit support of district leaders.

So going back to the headline at the start of this article, FFRF was never trying to stop “student led prayers.” They are trying to stop a district whose superintendent is clearly on a religious crusade. The superintendent even cited a Texas law (Education Code 25.156) in his defense, but that law doesn’t permit school districts to endorse Christianity the way he has.

The question now is what the next steps would be since the district has made clear it’ll keep violating the law. A community member did, in fact, contact FFRF about these violations, but it’s a hard ask for someone to publicly sue the district (even with FFRF’s help) because it could mean losing one’s anonymity. In a place where “Christian values” are everywhere, that tends to mean death threats against anyone who tries to push the district toward a place of religious neutrality.

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