Secular Student Alliance and the Freedom From Religion Foundation Team Up!

By Andrew Cheadle-Ford

High School Specialist, Secular Student Aliance

High school students are busier today than ever before. They’re worrying about college applications, extracurricular activities, AP classes, jobs, and much more. It’s hard to think that any of them could find the time to organize a secular student group. Yet many do and there are more every day. As the High School Specialist with the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), I get the honor of waking up every day and working with these dedicated and extraordinary students.

However, on top of all the growing demands on their time, many high school students who try to organize are being harassed and stalled by parents, teachers, and administrators all over the country. For years, the SSA has been educating students about their rights and protecting them when we can. We have our work cut out for us and for every issue that is brought to our attention, there are many more that fall off our radar.

That’s why I’m proud to tell you about our new, important partnership. We at the Secular Student Alliance are teaming up with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) to defend the rights of secular students to organize and to be free from school-sponsored religion or harassment. With the growing number of complaints and issues, the SSA is happy to have the experience of FFRF’s amazingly talented team of lawyers on our side.

Our two organizations will continue doing what we each do best, with the SSA focusing on organizing students and the FFRF focusing on ensuring the law is upheld. By recognizing and responding to issues of harassment and discrimination in a quicker and more efficient manner we can help even more students organize than before.

I’m very excited to see this partnership come about —many people have worked very hard on it. Things are looking bright for the future of secularism in America.

I expect the SSA, the FFRF, and all the other organizations in the secular movement will continue to work in a spirit of cooperation to ensure that future, not just for us but for all generations to come.

Have you had pushback from administrators at your school?