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So Florida wound up opening a can of worms when they allowed a guy to distribute atheist material out at a school. Basically, they started allowing colouring books depicting Satanist images into the school, although said colouring books do not actually promote the religion. (They contain things such as "This child is being a bully. Help this Satanist child use inclusive language to defuse the situation")
Given the current bullshit that is happening in Australia, I found this somewhat amusing. (The Australian issue at the moment is two-fold: first is that schools across the eastern seaboard in particular are being subject to an hour of "Religious Education" per week, which can be provided in several forms but is often just confined to Christianity, with occasional alternatives such as Baha'i or Islam if the school is in a Muslim-heavy area. Students who wish to opt out either have the option of an ethics class (in my current state) or they do other activities (other states). Unfortunately a number of schools do not have enough staff to supervise those who opt out and the students often wind up having t listen to said religious propaganda every week even if they won't.)
*The second half of the Australian bullshit is a bit more convoluted, so I'll explain it here: basically prior to our last federal election, schools had the option of having a chaplain (known as a Christian Pastoral Support Worker) or a Student Welfare Worker, funded by the federal govt. The main difference was that one was provided by a church or Christian organisation, the other was not. Both had the same duties, with the Student Welfare Worker simply not providing spiritual support. Technically the chaplains WEREN'T meant to be forcing religion down students throats, but often did anyway (I wound up being subject to this on a few occasions myself when I was in high school)
Then the election happened, the Liberals came into power and things changed. They removed the option of the Student Welfare Worker and basically changed it to "chaplains only." One parent did not particularly like that and started a campaign to tell the government to basically stop funding it. He won the challenge (thank god!) and the government were stuck scrambling. They've since changed the funding to be directed to the states with the same proviso. Thankfully my current state and my home state have both said no.
As for the RE classes mentioned above, one state (not mine) took it upon themselves to start changing things around. A number of schools removed the program (and are now being questioned as to why) and a number actually started making it opt-in instead of opt-out. When they did that, the number of students in said RE classes DROPPED.
The other issue that came up quite a bit on both accounts was that the chaplains (and I do mean chaplains here) were often called out to deal with non-spiritual stuff and were simply used as an extra pair of hands or a sounding ear for non-spiritual advice (ie if a girl had just started her period and had predominantly male teachers, she might go to the chaplain to get some pads). The bulk of their time was in fact used to calm down disruptive children.
So Florida wound up opening a can of worms when they allowed a guy to distribute atheist material out at a school. Basically, they started allowing colouring books depicting Satanist images into the school, although said colouring books do not actually promote the religion. (They contain things such as "This child is being a bully. Help this Satanist child use inclusive language to defuse the situation")
Given the current bullshit that is happening in Australia, I found this somewhat amusing. (The Australian issue at the moment is two-fold: first is that schools across the eastern seaboard in particular are being subject to an hour of "Religious Education" per week, which can be provided in several forms but is often just confined to Christianity, with occasional alternatives such as Baha'i or Islam if the school is in a Muslim-heavy area. Students who wish to opt out either have the option of an ethics class (in my current state) or they do other activities (other states). Unfortunately a number of schools do not have enough staff to supervise those who opt out and the students often wind up having t listen to said religious propaganda every week even if they won't.)
*The second half of the Australian bullshit is a bit more convoluted, so I'll explain it here: basically prior to our last federal election, schools had the option of having a chaplain (known as a Christian Pastoral Support Worker) or a Student Welfare Worker, funded by the federal govt. The main difference was that one was provided by a church or Christian organisation, the other was not. Both had the same duties, with the Student Welfare Worker simply not providing spiritual support. Technically the chaplains WEREN'T meant to be forcing religion down students throats, but often did anyway (I wound up being subject to this on a few occasions myself when I was in high school)
Then the election happened, the Liberals came into power and things changed. They removed the option of the Student Welfare Worker and basically changed it to "chaplains only." One parent did not particularly like that and started a campaign to tell the government to basically stop funding it. He won the challenge (thank god!) and the government were stuck scrambling. They've since changed the funding to be directed to the states with the same proviso. Thankfully my current state and my home state have both said no.
As for the RE classes mentioned above, one state (not mine) took it upon themselves to start changing things around. A number of schools removed the program (and are now being questioned as to why) and a number actually started making it opt-in instead of opt-out. When they did that, the number of students in said RE classes DROPPED.
The other issue that came up quite a bit on both accounts was that the chaplains (and I do mean chaplains here) were often called out to deal with non-spiritual stuff and were simply used as an extra pair of hands or a sounding ear for non-spiritual advice (ie if a girl had just started her period and had predominantly male teachers, she might go to the chaplain to get some pads). The bulk of their time was in fact used to calm down disruptive children.
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