Separation of Church & State

I am angry at my children's school. I believe they have violated the doctrine for the separation of church and state. They've teetered on doing so a few times that I've seen in the last few years and because this town is SO heavily Mennonite/religious, dry town, etc., everybody thinks it is OK to do so I guess. Up until now, it has bothered me but I have kept quiet about it because they've teetered but didn't jump over the line. Notice I said "until now" though.

The school (elementary and middle school) handed out pamphlets for a basketball and cheerleading program to all of its students. The pamphlet says it is offered through a Church but a lot of churches host activities that aren't necessarily religious for the community so I didn't think a whole lot about it. Then this pamphlet was also handed out to the kids at basketball practice at the school last week in the event they didn't make the team played at the schools, that this "great program" was an option for them so I looked further into it and contacted the League Director of the program to find out if this was purely sports related or if there were any religious elements to the basketball and cheerleading program. I was interested in enrolling my son and two daughters into their basketball (son and oldest daughter) and cheerleading (middle daughter) program if it wasn't religion-based.

Here is the response I received via email back from the League Director:

"During the practices, the coaches will stop and give a short devotion that has been prepared and written by *removed for privacy*. Every where in the USA that *removed for privacy* is taking place, they will be doing the same devotion. They will get a scripture learning card each week as well."

Why is the public school handing out pamphlets for a born again christian church activity to students? In my opinion, this violates the separation of church and state and seriously ticks me off. All the tottering they do with Halloween every year I overlooked even though it irritated me and my kids missed out on the fun of Halloween parades through classrooms that other schools in the area do (Halloween is "evil" didn't you know? *sigh* Halloween is one of this heathen's favorite times!). This thing with the pamphlets at the church I don't think I can overlook and am considering how exactly to approach the Superintendent or Principals.

I did respond back to the email from the church:

"Thank you for the information. While I want my daughter to play basketball, we don't attend/practice a church of God church and are not comfortable with practice devotions or weekly learning cards."

I believe this is a violation. What do you think?