FFRF learned that Tropic Isles Elementary School, North Fort Myers, Fla., planned a fifth-grade field trip to a church which was hosting a walk-through play entitled "Drug House Odyssey."
Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote the school district on Feb. 12 informing them that the field trip was unconstitutional: "Taking public school students to a church, a place covered with religious iconography, is an endorsement of that church's religion."
Lee County Schools Superintendent Nancy Graham responded Feb. 16, stating that she shared FFRF's concern that the district's participation "not present any impression that the School District is attempting to indoctrinate students into a religious belief."
The district chose to postpone the event and consider an alternative site, she said.