Davidson County Schools officials said last week that they were misled about a school assembly that allegedly included religious content, sparking letters from advocacy groups who claimed the event violated the separation of church and state.
The March 11 assembly at Hasty Elementary School was held during the school day and featured the Christian band 3 Heath Brothers. The band denied the event included improper religious content.
But the event has drawn scrutiny from groups that advocate for the separation of church and state, including the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Both groups sent letters to the district to lodge complaints about the event.
Ian Smith, a staff attorney at Americans United, told WFAE the group received a complaint from a parent in the district who said the event included religious music and that students were given a 104-page devotional book. That would violate the First Amendment, Smith said.
“It’s not the fact that the 3 Heath Brothers are religious,” Smith said. “It’s that they included religion in the assembly.”
The letter warns the district to ensure that “no future proselytizing assemblies are held during the school day at schools within the district.”
Superintendent Greg Slate told WFAE on Friday he’d personally responded to both letters asserting the district did not intend to put on a religious event. Instead, Slate said, the 3 Heath Brothers misrepresented the program as an anti-bullying event with no Christian content, and that local faculty and administrators were caught off guard.
The event included anti-bullying content, Slate said, but it also included some Christian music and devotional materials. That should never have happened, Slate maintained.
“We were incredibly disappointed that we were, to use an old-timey term, we were somewhat hoodwinked, if you will, because of the misrepresentation of what occurred,” Slate said.
In his letter to the district, Smith said the explanation didn’t stand up to scrutiny. He said 3 Heath Brothers’ status as a Christian music group is evident on their website and all of their promotional materials. It was the district’s responsibility to vet the group, Smith said.
But Slate said staff was specifically shown materials that they believed would make up the content of the performance — and that this did not include religious content.
“That was not what was supposed to occur,” Slate maintained.
Slate said the district has reminded its school principals to thoroughly vet all outside organizations and that board policy and law prohibits religious materials.
In an email to WFAE, Nicholas Heath, of the 3 Heath Brothers, denied that there was any proselytizing or worship service at the event. He described the event as a “upbeat show including comedy, games and lots of fun music” and said it’s been misconstrued by advocacy organizations who were not in attendance. He noted the group is not associated with any church or denomination.
“We took this show very seriously, and we were extremely careful with the messaging we put in it,” Heath said. “We are a Christian band, but the show we performed at Hasty Elementary School was totally different than our normal concerts. We did not proselytize in this show nor did we hold any kind of worship service.”
AU also sent a letter to 3 Heath Brothers demanding the group stop performing religious content in schools. The letter points to a GoFundMe to support the group’s “Public School Tour” that promises to “double our impact in the lives of public school students” and share “Jesus in a place where it’s needed most.”
As of Friday, the language mentioning Jesus was no longer present on the page.
