OHIO
đšTOLEDO PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS WALKING IT BACK.
And this clarification was absolutely necessaryâŠ
Toledo Public Schools Superintendent Romules Durant didnât make an ambiguous comment about his personal faith.
While discussing the future of Scott Park, he said:
âOne of the things that weâll have here is the church.â
âThese kids need the Lord.â
âWeâre going to have church service going on there as well.â
The Blade also reported that the development would include âa worship space tailored to studentsâ spiritual needs.â
Now the Toledo Public Schools Board is making clear that is NOT the plan.
In a statement provided directly to SEA by Board President Chris Varwig, the Board says Scott Park is being developed âstrictly as an educational hub.â
It says Durantâs comments reflected his âpersonal faith.â
And, importantly:
âNo public funds, district resources, or tax dollars will be used to establish, operate, or promote religious instruction at Scott Park.â
We asked another question: What is being done about the Superintendentâs remarks?
President Varwig answered us directly:
âAs President Iâve had that conversation with our Superintendent.â
We appreciate that answer. We appreciate President Varwig addressing it. And we appreciate the Board putting its commitment to church/state separation on the record.
đ«But letâs not sanitize what required this intervention.
âThese kids need the Lordâ is not an appropriate statement from the superintendent of a public school district about the children he serves.
Those children are Christian. Jewish. Muslim. Hindu. Atheist. Agnostic. Members of other faiths. Undecided. Searching. And none of that changes their equal place in a public school.
â Dr. Durant is entitled to his personal faith.
đ« He is NOT entitled to turn his personal religious beliefs into a vision for what other peopleâs children spiritually âneed.â
And a superintendent should never announce a church, worship space and church services as part of a public-school development only for his Board to have to publicly explain afterward that none of those things are actually district plansâŠ
President Varwig says that conversation has now happened.
Good.
Now it needs to mean something.
Because the Board should not have to issue another âclarificationâ the next time the Superintendent forgets the difference between his personal faith and his public office.
Toledo Public Schools belongs to every child.
Dr. Durant needs to lead it that way
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: Zorya Vechernyaya Since you specifically suggested people support FFRF instead, itâs worth clarifying that FFRF does not take the position youâre asking SEA to take either.
FFRF has stated that âstudents absolutely have the right to hold any religious belief or none at all,â and that âparents, not the government, have the right to determine which faith, if any, they teach their children to believe in.â That is also our position.
SEA does not exist to decide whether religion is âacceptable human behavior.â We exist to defend secular public education. That means opposing public schools promoting, endorsing, facilitating, privileging, or imposing religion while defending the rights of religious and nonreligious families alike.
There are Christians, atheists, agnostics, and people from many different religious traditions doing this work alongside us. That isnât âwaffling.â It is the principle. You are absolutely entitled to believe religion itself is harmful. But that is your positionânot ours. And despite invoking FFRF as the alternative, it isnât their position on religious freedom either.
Government doesnât get to choose a childâs religion. Neither does SEA. Neither does FFRF. Families do.
Church-state separation protects that freedom in both directions.
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