Parents urge board to limit religious promotion in schools, cite First Amendment concerns

Two Ashland parents told the Ashland City School District Board of Education on Sept. 22 that religious programming and religiously themed materials in schools risk violating the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

“I…cherish one of the core founding principles of this country, which is the separation of church and state,” parent Alexandra Emmons told the board, saying she and other families had provided copies of letters the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the superintendent in July and December 2024 and that she had seen “two songs…with explicitly religious lyrics” performed at a May 2025 school assembly.

Emmons said she was not arguing against private religious instruction but disputed what she described as “the overall encroachment of religion into our public school system,” and asked the board to reduce what she called “proselytization” in district schools.

In response, Superintendent Parramore said Lifewise is offered by…