Alpine School District apologizes for “hurt feelings” after claim by Freedom From Religion group

SALT LAKE CITY — The Alpine School District has apologized “for any hurt feelings” related to a video shown to the student body at Cedar Valley High School in Eagle Mountain.

According to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national non-profit, the school showed the video to students on Nov. 17. According to the foundation, “Cedar Valley High School showed the entire student body a video with overtly religious messaging during class.”

The foundation said that the video featured “a teacher at the school discussing God, Satan, heaven, the ‘sin’ of laziness, and stated that students who feel sad or depressed likely feel that way because they haven’t ‘worked hard enough.'”

The video was reportedly posted to Cedar Valley High’s Instagram account by members of the school’s audiovisual department and was shared on social media from the official Cedar Valley High School account.

In a response sent to KSL, Dr. Rich Stowell, the director of communications for Alpine School District, said they’ve removed the video from their social media platforms.

“After receiving feedback from their community, the administrative team at Cedar Valley High School met with concerned students and decided to remove the video from their platforms,” Stowell said.

Stowell also said the district didn’t intend to push religious beliefs on anyone.

“It was not the intention of the administrator in the video to push religious beliefs on anyone, nor to make students feel bad about themselves,” Stowell said in the statement. “As a learning organization, we look for opportunities to improve every day, and offer grace to those who are making efforts to do better.”

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