School district investigating mass baptism at football practice

 "They have no choice. It’s proselytizing, it’s coercive, and it’s not legal in our schools.”

While this incident was rightly shot down and scrutinized heavily, it is like playing whack-a-mole as far as SOCAS and public schooling goes.  The cases just keep pouring in and the religionists just don't seem to care.

Villa Rica High School and its principal should not have allowed a local church to perform on-field baptisms at its football stadium last month, a Carroll County School System investigation concluded.…

[Assistant Superintendent Terry] Jones’ statement said the school district “had no knowledge that this event was scheduled to happen at VRHS.”

“The principal’s understanding was that the event was a church sponsored activity that was to be conducted after school and he was not aware of student involvement,” the statement said. “From the investigation the school district has concluded that VRHS failed to follow district facility usages procedures for outside groups using school facilities.”

Maybe as one comment pointed out it's time to play hardball, "There's a simple solution to this problem: Have all School Board employees sign a statement to the effect that they are aware of the law regarding church-state separation, and that the penalty for exposing a school to a CSS lawsuit will be immediate termination for cause and financial liability for all costs incurred by the School Board regarding legal judgments against them."

A Georgia school district is investigating after video of a mass baptism was posted on YouTube.

The video, posted by First Baptist Villa Rica, was shot on school grounds just before football practice. "We had the privilege of baptizing a bunch of football players and a coach on the field of Villa Rica High School! We did this right before practice! Take a look and see how God is STILL in our schools!" the caption with the video reads.

By Tuesday evening, the video had been removed from YouTube.

The Carroll County School system released a statement Tuesday afternoon:

"The Carroll County School System was made aware of a situation that took place at Villa Rica High School prior to football practice on August 17th.  The District is currently looking into the specifics of this situation and will take appropriate steps to ensure all state and federal laws are followed."

The Freedom from Religion Foundation sent a letter to Carroll County Tuesday asking the district to "immediately investigate and take action to ensure there will be no further illegal religious events". In the letter, the FFRF mentioned its lawsuit against Emanuel County School District for similar practices. The group is now seeking punitive and personal liability damages in that case. "We prefer to settle these matters cooperatively," the letter ends with a request to detail the steps the school district is taking to comply with the First Amendment.

School district investigating mass baptism at football practice