Students and family are voicing concerns after a teacher required an 'overtly religious' video to be watched.

Eagle Mountain

A video featuring religious themes, created by Cedar Valley High School's assistant principal in Eagle Mountain, Utah, was posted on the school's social media and later removed after concerns were raised. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) became involved when a family member reported that students were required to watch the video, which included references to heaven and hard work, as well as comments on mental health.

The Alpine School District stated the video was not intended to promote religious beliefs or make students uncomfortable, and expressed regret for any hurt caused. The FFRF has requested more information about the district's response and steps to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Concerns after teacher required religious video to be watched

We're told that video was also posted on the school's social media platforms. While it's since been taken down, we were able to obtain it thanks to our partners at the Salt Lake Tribune. Have a listen for yourself. Hey everybody, I'm so excited. It's Friday afternoon at the end of school. You're hearing from Cedar Valley High School's assistant principal, Scott Mansfield, sharing what he called an important and emotional message. My joke is that if there is a heaven, when I get up to heaven and they go to see if I can come in or not, they're going to look at my list of sins and problems and weaknesses and say, you're not welcome here. Yet he says his strength would be that I know how to work hard. In other words, I will not have the sin of laziness on my list. But some say the problem goes beyond getting into heaven with this religious messaging. If a church made this video and put it on their social media, that's totally fine. The problem is a public school is supposed to be neutral when it comes to religion. It's not supposed to promote religion, be anti-religion. Attorney Sammy Lawrence with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, or FFRF, says a concerned family member of a student made them aware of the issue after they were required to watch it. The video went on with messaging about hard work. If you ever go to bed depressed or sad, guess what? You probably haven't worked hard enough. The comments about mental health in the video were also just very insensitive and offensive to the person who complained to us. Others posted replies voicing worries over a lack of separation between church and state. FFRF sent a letter to the Alpine School District saying it's unconstitutional to film a video preaching personal religions at a public high school. In a statement to Fox 13 News, Alpine officials say they took the video down after meeting with concerned students. But Lawrence wants to learn more about how they investigated this issue and what they'll do moving forward. We would like to see them take steps in the future to make sure that similar things don't happen again. In the written response they shared with me, the school district says it wasn't the intention of the administrator to push religious beliefs on anyone, nor to make students feel bad about themselves. They say they regret any hurt feelings that were caused by the video. In Eagle Mountain, I'm Jeremy Toms, Fox 13 News, Utah.

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