Readers React: Atheist students deserve scholarship information too

To the editor: Has the Bible Belt annexed northern L.A. County? You’d think so, where Antelope Valley Union High School District notifies its college-bound students of a scholarship requiring each applicant to explain “how and when you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior,” yet it refuses to inform them about atheist organizations’ scholarships requiring essays on the “challenges of being a nonbeliever.” (“Groups sue Antelope Valley school district over atheist scholarships,” April 18)

One AVUHSD official defended the latter scholarships’ exclusion by speculating that wording of such essays “would upset parents.”

Such facile speculation ignores how upset students’ parents will be when they learn how the AVUHSD is wasting precious taxpayer dollars in a futile effort to defend its plainly unconstitutional course of conduct.

Repent, AVUHSD, before it’s too late!

David Schaffer, Santa Monica

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To the editor: According to this article, the AVUHSD is acting like a Christian organization while claiming not to be one. How else can one see it when they inform students of an opportunity to write about accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior for scholarship money, while they have a policy of not “not endorsing religious or anti-religious expression among students”?

The Antelope Valley Freethinkers were told by Deputy Supt. Jeff Foster that non-religious students would not hear about scholarship money available to them because it would “upset parents.” All parents? No, just religious parents hearing that students could write about atheism for scholarship money.

Apparently this school district thinks freethinking parents and students don’t exist or simply don’t matter.

Daniel J. Chaney, Los Angeles

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