WV HS Students Hold Walkout After Forced To Attend Church Revival At School W 'Doors Locked': ACLU

-AP News, More than 100 students at Huntington High School in West Virginia staged a walkout to protest a Christian assembly they were forced to attend during school hours. (Feb. 9). / Students say they were forced to stay at a Christian revival held at school on Feb. 2, 2022.



- Max Nibert, HHS senior.

- The Guardian: West Virginia students to stage walkout over Christian revival at high school. Students instructed to raise their arms in prayer at event in public school’s auditorium.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/09/west-virginia-huntington-high-school-walkout-christian-revival
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- Daily Kos, Feb. 9, 2022. - 'Jewish student reportedly asks to leave evangelical revival, told classroom doors are locked.'

In a West Virginia community of fewer than 50,000 people, students were ushered into an assembly between their calculus and European history classes, 16-year-old Cameron Mays told ABC News. They were told to close their eyes in prayer and urged to turn their lives over to Christ to avoid the ever-popular threat of eternal damnation, Mays said.

When Bethany Felinton's Jewish son asked to leave, a teacher told him he couldn't because the classroom was locked. “Is this legal?” one student reportedly texted to his father. “My mind was blown,” Max Nibert, a senior at the school, Huntington High, told WCHS. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Not exactly how I’d want my children introduced to Christianity. When Cabell County Schools spokesperson Jedd Flowers was asked how an evangelical revival became a requirement during the school's daily COMPASS "noninstructional break," he said teachers mistook the voluntary event organized by the school's chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as required. “It’s unfortunate that it happened,” Flowers said. "We don’t believe it will ever happen again.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and other advocacy groups are arguing the mistake never should've even been a possibility. “If you’re a public school student, you don’t check your constitutional rights at the schoolhouse doors,” the nonprofit said in an article shared in response to the news. “But whether schools can punish you for speaking out depends on when, where, and how you decide to express yourself.”

Students organized a walkout in protest on Wednesday...

More,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/2/9/2079412/-Evangelical-preacher-given-carte-blanche-access-to-minors-at-Christ-or-hell-style-school-revival

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~ Way to go West Virginians!