Group provides atheist pamphlets to students

DELTA, Colo.-- The Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers said there is a lot of religious pressure, specifically Christianity, in the Delta County School District.

Anne Landman, a board member of the group, said some parents have told them they are fed up with it, which is why the group provided, what they call, atheist and Satanic materials to the schools Friday morning.

The group said they hope this will make the district adopt a policy that will keep religion out of public schools.

Kurt Clay, the assistant superintendent for the Delta County School District, said they have a policy allowing all non-violent, secular materials inside schools.

"The big thing is we can't discriminate. Once we allow it for one thing, we have to allow it for all," Clay said.

He added that Christians have dropped off bibles at the school libraries for years.

While the atheist group wants to offer youth a different point of view, Landman said they have a bigger goal in mind.

"We'd like to encourage the school district to stop distributing bibles and also stop other activities promoting religion in school," Landman said.
However, this idea is not sitting well with some parents. In fact, Delta resident Larry Connally said he did not allow his son to attend school today.

He said he found the materials offensive and added that matters of religion should be handled at home, not in a public school.

"It's the parent's responsibility to take care of this and not some other group that has no bearing on what my child's future is going to be like," Connally said.

About 1,000 copies of the materials were on display at 10 public schools in Delta County.

The students had the option to take a pamphlet, which the atheist and freethinkers group said many did.

The school district is now considering revising their policy to remove all non-curricular and religious materials from schools.

Landman emphasized that the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers organization is not a follower of Satan.

She said a Satanic temple in Salem, Massachusetts wanted to take advantage of this open forum literature distribution and so they shipped their materials to the atheist group to distribute to schools Friday.