JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A lawyer for Mississippi’s Rankin County school district denies that a high school teacher insulted atheists in class.
Fred Harrell Jr. told The Associated Press Wednesday that the American Humanist Association got the facts wrong in a complaint letter that it publicly circulated Tuesday.
He says that world history teacher, Rick Hammarstrom, was not voicing his own opinion when he was alleged to have said “you are a fool if you don’t believe in God.” Harrell says Hammarstrom was quoting a lawyer’s statement during a class discussion.
Harrell says he’s still investigating what happened, but blasts the humanist group, which earlier sued the Rankin district for improperly promoting Christianity in school. Harrell says the group should have approached officials in Mississippi’s third-largest school district before releasing the letter naming Hammarstrom.
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