Why is it so hard to form atheist groups in American high schools?

[AdMan]

High School Atheists Are Organizing -- Why Are Schools Pushing Back?

High school student Brian Lisco just wanted to form a student club. A senior at Stephen Austin High School in the Houston suburbs, Lisco wanted to meet with like-minded students; students who shared common interests, who could talk about ideas they found interesting, who could give one another support.

But his efforts were consistently thwarted by the administration at his high school. His requests to form a club were stalled for months, and obstacle after obstacle was put in his path.

Why?

Because the group he wanted to start was an atheist group.

His story is being repeated, with variations, around the country.

But the powerful resistance these groups have encountered makes the need for them all too clear. The reality is that atheists are the most distrusted and disliked of all minority groups -- more than blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, immigrants, and gays and lesbians -- and polls show that Americans are less likely to vote for an atheist than they are for a person in any other minority or marginalized category.

Source.




We need to support these kids.

http://www.secularstudents.org/

 

[Zep]

It's pretty simple, because the people they need to get past are simpletons. Just don't mention that word - that's what sets them off.* Call it "Rational Polemics Club" or "Deep Thought" or something. Anything but "atheist". I'm sure a thesaurus will come in handy here.


*So do words like "Mexican" and "Jew", I expect.

 

[Seismosaurus]

How do they even have a say? Simply declare the atheist student's group founded and invite people to join. Meet in public spaces during break time.

 

[Travis]

I didn't have too much trouble forming an Atheist club at my high school. I even got a teacher to host it (a Republican teacher at that) but ultimately we failed because well.......no one joined up. There just wasn't any interest among the students.

 

[Eddie Dane]

I didn't have too much trouble forming an Atheist club at my high school. I even got a teacher to host it (a Republican teacher at that) but ultimately we failed because well.......no one joined up. There just wasn't any interest among the students.

...not collecting post stamps, and all that.

 

[The Mutha]

My daughter graduated from that school four years ago. It's not in a "Houston suburb", it's in Sugar Land a.k.a. Tom DeLay land. A God, guns, motherhood and apple pie - in that order - sort of world.

The idea that someone isn't a Christian is enough to freak the school administration out, much less godless... They and the parents are scared to death that this student will influence their little boys/girls into not towing the family's religious line.

 

[C_Felix]

I gave it a quick read, and perhaps I missed it, but does that same school have a Jewish group, or a Muslim group...etc...??

If not, then I don't see a problem. Let me clarify that. The atheist kids should be allowed to form a group.

But, if they let the Jews have a group....that's what I'm getting at.