Is my high school's suicide prevention event legal?
Hi r/atheism!
So just for some background, I am a sophomore at a high school down in the Bible Belt and I recently recalled a suicide prevention event that my school held after school for their second time when I was a freshman. I attended when my Catholic older sister invited me and I was cautious at first, since she knew that I'm an atheist and tried to tell me to stay after school once for a Christian club, which I dodged by getting on our bus instead. This time, I thought it wouldn't be so bad because the school made public announcements about it on our weekly news broadcasts and on our daily announcements a few weeks prior to the event.
From what I understand about the event came to be, a sophomore from our school's student council, now a senior, came up with this idea. The event itself in our large gym wasn't too bad when I first went to it. There were booths everywhere giving out certain stuff, such as pamphlets on suicide prevention. There was another booth that gave out free fruit snacks. Minor details aside, I clearly remember the first booth I was taken to was the one with a middle aged man who, upon seeing me, gave me a small book. That book turned out to be a mini-Bible and I looked through it and it just gave some Bible verses for certain problems you had, which I later gave to my Catholic friend who didn't attend. I wandered around for a bit longer and a middle aged lady forced a green sheet of paper into my hands that was an advertisement for a Christian book on suicide prevention. Our brief interaction was quite awkward, but I thanked the lady, told her I would look into it and possibly consider buying the book (I didn't), and went on my way. I wandered out for a bit longer and I did find some booths from other organizations that went the opposite way from the first two booths I pointed out, which had pamphlets offering advice on depression and suicide without mentioning religion.
After like an hour into the event, everyone was told to move to the bleachers. There on the basketball court, some guest speakers said some words, including a youth minister. When this guy was speaking, I recall a girl from the crowd shouting, "AMEN!", followed by applause from others in the bleachers. I don't recall anything relevant to bring into detail afted that since I remember that afterwards, guest speakers that were students came up and shared some of their stories. A little while longer, the event was over and that was it.
That aside, the event wasn't too bad when I went there for the first time. I got a small pack of fruit snacks and a mini-Bible I later gave to a friend who I believed could use to its full purpose more than I could. It was earlier in 2017 when this happened, but I am almost certain that this event will happen again next year in April, since the guy responsible for this event is now a senior at my high school. With that said, is my high school's suicide prevention event legal? I pointed out some important details regarding this and I want to know what you guys think.
Posted Aug 17, 2017, 8:01 PM UTC