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Colorado School District: We Have No Choice But To Allow Atheist, Satanic Materials

By Matt Kroschel

DELTA, Colo. (CBS4) - A rural Western slope school district is standing by their policy of allowing all religious material to be accessible to students inside schools, despite recent protests from some Christian parents.

Members of the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers will be placing atheist and satanic pamphlets inside the libraries of Delta Middle School and Delta High School for one day.

"We want our kids to be able to access different types of materials, for example 4-H, and Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts. Once we do that, we cannot discriminate against any other groups being able to distribute that material," said Pastor Greg Teel of the Calvary Baptist Church.

School district officials say their policy is to allow all non violent secular materials inside the schools, alongside the Bible.

Members of the group who pushed for the controversial literature threatened legal action if the schools wouldn't let their materials in. They also say they have received death threats related to this issue.

"People either love us or hate us, and that's perfectly fine. People are entitled to their opinions. We don't appreciate the death threats," said Aleksandr Kolpakov president of WCAFT.

atheist pamphlet Delta
(credit: Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers)

However, they stand by the move and say parents of non religious students reached out to the group for support.

"People of any denomination can feel safe in the schools, they can feel that they don't have to bend to a single religion," said Kolpakov.

Some parents plan to meet to pray outside the schools on Friday, while the WCAFT says they are now targeting other school districts in Colorado.

The pamphlets will be allowed for one day only as part of the agreement with the district, on Friday. The superintendent says the district is now considering revising their policy, which would remove all non-curricular, religious materials from schools.

Matt Kroschel covers news throughout Colorado working from the CBS4 Mountain Newsroom. Send story ideas to mrkroschel@cbs.com and connect with him on Twitter @Matt_Kroschel.

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