By Ellen Johnson
President, American Atheists Inc.

The purpose of this guide is to educate Atheist parents and students about practices in our nation's public schools in respect to religion and Atheism. The contents may also be relevant to those who might not describe themselves as Atheists, but still have questions about — or object to — certain activities in the public schools which may unconstitutionally promote religion. These situations may involve school authorities (teachers, administrators) or other students. It could pertain to anything from school assemblies during the class day which fea- ture speakers who deliver a religious message, to pressure put on a student to join a Bible club or participate in some other faith-related activity he or she objects to.

It is also about the equal right of Atheists to profess their Atheism in the public schools. This may take the form of Atheist slogans on T-shirts, book covers, or jewelry, or the right to form Atheist clubs, just as religious students have claimed the right to form Bible clubs.

The text above is the first two paragraphs of the introduction from this American Atheists publication. The entire publication is available on the website in two forms:

• Color cover version duplicates the original including the cover design. This file is about 620 Kilobytes in size.
• Simplified cover version has a simplified cover and does not contain a page with a reproduction of the Bill of Rights. This file is about 360 Kilobytes in size.

You probably already have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, however, if you find you cannot view the PDF files, you can download a free version from Adobe.

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