(ETH) – A Kansas school has canceled its participation in Operation Christmas Child after an atheist group reportedly wrote to the school district claiming that the program “violates basic constitutional principles.”
According to the report from the Christian Post, The annual project is sponsored by the Christian nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse, through which shoeboxes filled with gifts are sent to children in more than 160 nations. The atheist group is demanding that Liberty Middle School “cease participation in Operation Christmas Child or taking any other actions promoting Christianity like including religious references over morning announcements,”
The atheist legal group, Freedom From Religion Foundation, wrote to Tony Helfrich, who is the superintendent of Pratt School District, claiming “many egregious constitutional violations [are] occurring” at the school. “Regarding our students’ participation in ‘Operation Christmas Child,’ we are discontinuing that effort upon learning that its mission is more sectarian in nature than we realized,” Helfrich wrote in a Nov. 7 response letter to FFRF.
“A lot of these groups rely on school authorities being ignorant about their mission,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor said in response to Helfrich’s decision. “We appreciate how swiftly the district discontinued the fundraising after our alert.”
