Team Impact?

[Bella99]

A couple of weeks ago, Team Impact, .team-impact.com the baseball bat breakers for Team Jebus were on my daughter's elementary campus. A prior notice to parents was not considered necessary, despite the fact that President Obama's speech had to be signed off on. They wrapped themselves in an anti-bullying message and sent invitations to see them at a local megachurch home. I checked out their Facebook page and it is chock full of my kids saw your show and got saved!! A group with a clear evangelical agenda was allowed to come onto a publicly funded campus without asking the parents first. I am livid, but while this is a hill I am willing to die on, it is not one I will stake my daughter out on. I want to know ahead of time, I don't want her to have to sit in the library while everybody else goes to assembly, I want to know so I can keep her home that day.

Thoughts on the best way to handle this?

[Kelya]

oh my goodness. where do you live? this would NOT fly where I am. Do you have any likeminded parents in the same school system you could discuss this with? I honestly don't know what to do, if the school seriously thought this was okay i don't think you'll get very far with them. ACLU maybe?

Apparently you're not alone:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyat ... ic-school/

[emmiedahl]

I wish I had an easy answer. You might want to print out the laws in your state regarding this and schedule an appointment with the superintendent. Obviously the principal already thinks this is okay, so take it over his head.

[Bella99]

I'll check out state laws, but I'm lost in Rick Perry land. When I called Americans United for the Separation of Church and State they said as long as the invitations are intended for the parents it has been ruled legal. District policy on flyers was very vague, simply, nothing "inappropriate" and the principal gets to decide.

[Bella99]

I spoke with the legal department for the Freedom From Religion Foundation and forwarded the e-mail that informed us of Team Impact's visit (along with other school events) five days after they were at her school. FFRF's legal department will be sending them a letter regarding my complaint while protecting our privacy. Hopefully in the future the school will do a better job at keeping parents informed in advance.

And I'll be sending FFRF a donation in honor of Team Impact. :twisted:

[emmiedahl]

We get overtly religious flyers at our school, but my kids have never been asked to sit through an assembly. I would have a shit-fit. Thanks for reporting them.

[Alecto]

I wonder if this goes on a case by case basis kind of thing? Team Impact came to a school my mother works at and they didn't promote their local event with the local church, and mostly did an anti-bullying and anti-drug program. I kind of wonder if they cater it depending on the area since the school my mom works at is known for a few parents who rightly complain about Church-state violations.

[Bella99]

Their website makes it clear that their ultimate goal is soulwinning and boasts of being able to access public schools. Even without handing out the invitations they are hoping the kids will get their parents to take them to the evening events. Here they were covered by the local media. The attorney from FFRF said this is a common tactic, use a topic we can all agree on like bullying or illegal drugs to gain access to a captive audience and try to hook them into showing up for the events outside of school. In our case I'm fairly sure they were paid to come to Houston by a local megachurch.

[Bella99]

I received a draft of the letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation already (less than a day after I called). It is a perfect response that I hope will put a stop to this nonsense.