I am an atheist. I do not believe in any particular god or deity. However, I respect people who do and listen with an open mind when conversations turn theological. I don’t push my beliefs onto anyone, and I don’t try to disprove anyone’s religion.
I expect this respect to be reciprocated.
But on Jan. 15, during D period, in the girls’ upper 600s bathroom, there were sticky notes stuck to the mirrors with phrases like “Jesus loves you” and Bible verses. This may come across as supportive and nice, but it is disrespectful to people like myself who do not believe in the Christian god.
I don’t particularly care if Jesus loves me, because I don’t believe in him. I don’t need to see Bible verses telling me that God loves everyone while I’m washing my hands. I don’t believe in any god. I don’t believe in Jesus. Being religious is not the default.
For example, recently, students have formed a Christian-based club for other Christians to connect and discuss their religion. (According to one member, they were not the ones who placed the post-it notes on the mirrors.) I think that’s wonderful and because they all believe in the same general ideas and are conversing with each other about it.
The club is a positive way for people to connect with each other about their shared beliefs, and unlike the individuals who posted the sticky notes on the mirrors, this club isn’t forcing their beliefs on people who are just trying to go to the bathroom.
Individuals spreading their beliefs around to the rest of the school by themselves is too far. It is overstepping a boundary between education and religion by putting this belief system into the public bathrooms of students who might be Jewish, Muslim, atheist or any other religion.
LHS is a public high school with no religious denomination. No one can expect me to believe in any particular god. I don’t mind religion, and I don’t mind when people celebrate theirs, but I just don’t want to be smothered with it. If you want to put up sticky notes with religious phrases, do it at a local place of worship or even in your own home.
Religion can be comforting; it provides a theoretical explanation as to what happens after someone passes on. If you are religious, I am happy for you, and I’m happy that you have a community there for you. But that is just not me, and I want that to be respected.
I love it when people express their beliefs, but please do not do it in a public restroom in the facility of students of all different religions and belief systems.
jdawg
Feb 13, 2026 at 10:50 pm
The concept of bashing a JOURNALISM website for sharing an opinion is crazy. What ever way you believe is fine, I was raised Catholic and I somewhat believe in god. Do I think the sticky notes are that serious, no, do I think there should be christian and catholic religion spread around a non religious school also no. We have clubs for this exact reason, and if you believe in god and what to express your love for him, join these clubs!! I think the point is, some people would be outraged if satanists put a sticky note that says “satan loves you” or even if muslim people put a sticky note that says “Allah loves you”. I think this whole thing has been blown way out of proportion, end in end, people have free speech to a certain degree(hate speech), and the article + the sticky notes are perfect examples. Also NOBODY cares what you think Liz, stay in your boundaries of Derry please.
maria gomez
Jan 28, 2026 at 9:27 pm
Honestly, everyone had lost their minds in this comment section. I’m on neither side of this argument and the lancer spirit members that are trying to defend themselves and covering up all the hate in the comments is getting embarrassing. however, i do side with the comments more because i don’t see this as an issue. but i can also explain why the comments are in the wrong. but first this article. This is very well written and well worded, but the topic, on the other hand, is extremely sensitive. it’s called “Freedom of religion” which is a constitutional law and atheism is not considered a religion. It doesn’t matter if a school doesn’t have an assigned religion, it doesn’t stop the fact that it is freedom of speech and religion , but this article is also a freedom of speech as well. TBH, the post it notes weren’t meant to offended ANYBODY. if it said “turn to jesus or you will go to hell” then yeah that’s a problem. But, simple things like jesus loves you does not mean anything offensive in any way, yet the best thing you can do is just throw away the note if it bothers you a ton and not come on a school site and write a whole thing about it. People trying to cover it up saying it’s an “opinion”, but honestly, it kinda is and isn’t because this isn’t preventable lawfully. You can’t remove a constitutional law that’s been around for centuries. So the best thing you can do is just ignore it tbh. Some parts in this article are opinions but I can see some parts that can be offensive to many others. If I would’ve wrote this, I would’ve doubled check before posting. But never in my life that I have seen someone very offended over inoffensive notes on a mirror. The comments bashing the writer is also not okay because them seeing this can make them feel really bad. I don’t mean any harm to the writer or this club and good job for writing this but both sides of this are goofy and should be either taken down or dealt with because it’s so stupid
gurt
Jan 27, 2026 at 9:47 pm
everyone arguing genuinely has just lost the whole point omg. “we could be talking about *ICE*, ai nonconsensual deepfakes, harmful ai, overconsumption, protests, endangered animals, women’s rights, but no we are so privileged we have to talk about a piece of paper in the bathroom..”!!!!!!!! nobody truly cares or looks twice at the sticky notes get a grip
anonymous
Jan 27, 2026 at 6:58 pm
This is an exceptionally well-crafted piece… very well-articulated!
loveleak
Jan 25, 2026 at 6:00 pm
🙏 . فاذكروني أذكركم وشكروا لي ولا تكفرون ❣️
edward shneevel
Jan 25, 2026 at 11:57 am
most of what im seeing in these comments is people being butthurt that someone wrote an article calling them out for pushing religion on other people. LHS is not a religious school so trying to push ANY religion on the students would get the same reaction. i feel like its the equivalent of going to a christian school and putting up sticky notes saying “god isn’t real” or “jesus doesn’t love you.” also some of you saying that this article should be taken down are either dumb, crazy or both. a student speaks out against something that affects them and the first thing you do is to call for censorship?? dont be soft, accept that others will have different opinions than you, and dont push to drastically change their opinions. great article.
kathy
Jan 22, 2026 at 10:16 pm
respect for you writing this essay but as these comments are saying, i don’t really think it’s a big issue. we understand that you don’t believe in a god and im sorry that you feel like that about peoples religions. but in this world where billions people believe a religion, it’s hard to avoid because it is everywhere. like the comments are saying, these sticky notes aren’t preventing the use of the bathroom at all. yes i don’t think you are supposed to put sticky notes on the mirrors or anything like that but the sticky weren’t sayin anything offensive. fun fact that this is part of the christian religion (spreading the gospel). this article is like telling a muslim to take their hijab off. we in america have the right and freedom of religion (idk if yall learned that in history yet) to spread our beliefs. i understand you shared your beliefs in this article but “opinions” like this should be kept to yourself because this can be seen as very offensive (according to the comments). people shouldnt stop doing what their religion says (spreading the gospel) because one teenage person doesn’t like sticky notes that says “jesus loves you” or a simple bible verse. many people that believe in many different religions think that it isn’t a issue. being told by someone that their god loves you is actually seen as a compliment. it didn’t mean anything bad, it’s like wishing someone good luck on something (sorry for the bad explanation). for this schools and students sake, i think this should be taken down.
The Lancer Spirit Editorial Board
Jan 23, 2026 at 1:40 pm
Hello! Thank you for your comments on this article. We appreciate when our readers are willing to address their points of view on the content we publish on LSO. After all, the goal of a news publication is to be a marketplace of ideas and generate discussion on a variety of topics and points of view.
We have noticed, however, that you have posted comments using different names, but from the same email address. When the comments are accepted, only the different names show up on the site, so our readers might not realize these comments are from the same person. We, however, can see that. While we are happy to post comments that add to the discussion of a topic, we would not want our readers to be tricked into thinking there are several different people who are offended by an article when many of these comments are only coming from one person commenting the same ideas, posing as different people. We value different opinions, even those that criticize our publication, however, we do not value deception. Therefore, we will no longer be approving comments from you. Thank you.
Sincerely,
The Lancer Spirit Editorial Board
lia
Jan 24, 2026 at 11:56 pm
Hello. i had no idea about that some of the comments were from the same person but it is important to take criticism seriously. you should really double check on what your writers publish so this school won’t have a bad name. they have really good writing skills and a lot of potential. but what this “comment” is saying. i feel like it is offensive. i go to pinkerton and i think you should take it down. especially since the writer who wrote this will experience extreme backlash from ppl at lhs
free liam ramos
Jan 24, 2026 at 2:55 am
It goes both ways, dear. Atheistic rhetoric is going to be around you. You just have to be able to coordinate with it in your life. I am a Satanist. Now, does that make you feel uncomfortable? It does for other people. Articles like this are going to exist. Censoring someone’s opinion because you don’t agree/think it is offensive is incredibly hypocritical. Keeping this on the site is the best thing a journalist club should do. Thanks, LSO.
lia
Jan 24, 2026 at 11:44 pm
that’s not what she is trying to explain. we don’t care if you’re atheist or a satanist. yes it does make me feel uncomfortable because satan doesn’t love us but if u think he’s the god then fine. also, this isn’t an opinion, it’s dissing a religion because someone was offended over a note. keeping it on this site is going to cause a bad name for this school. according to many websites, 6.3 billion people have a religion, and now imagine them reading this article, 99% they are going to be offended by it. it is a non issue and the whole school in the comment section is offended. she is not being hypocritical because there’s a difference between an opinion and complete disrespect and this article is disrespectful. yes they are many articles like this on other websites but that LAST place for these types of articles to be in is a school website. i’m from pinkerton (i know ew) and this is the reason why everyone hates londonderry because of things like this. you have no idea how badly this will affect the face of this school.
loveleak
Jan 25, 2026 at 5:46 pm
What are you on about If you’re from Pinkerton, why do you care about Londonderry and their reputation? What do you mean, “things like this”. Are you sure this person didn’t call you up to back them up? “Satan doesn’t love you”. How do you know that? The whole comment section is one person…
lia
Jan 26, 2026 at 4:00 pm
First of all, i don’t even know this person. second of all, it literally says in the bible that satan is trying to trick us all and doesn’t care or love us. hes like a villain. second of all, the reason why i came in here was because this article is spreading in my school and everyone is making fun of it so i decided to see for myself. it makes londonderry look like a joke. like what school release a article making fun of christian religion…
lia
Jan 26, 2026 at 4:06 pm
also it is concerning that this girl that wrote is getting bullied by one of the biggest schools in nh… along with lhs
anomy
Jan 22, 2026 at 9:44 pm
the world doesn’t revolve around person. 6 billion ppl in this world believe in a religion so you have to suck it up because it’s impossible to avoid it. this is such a non issue
Anonymous
Jan 22, 2026 at 6:15 pm
Praying for you💝
hay
Jan 22, 2026 at 3:22 pm
we could be talking about *ICE*, ai nonconsensual deepfakes, harmful ai, overconsumption, protests, endangered animals, women’s rights, but no we are so privileged we have to talk about a piece of paper in the bathroom..
2nop
Jan 22, 2026 at 2:09 pm
The fact that you’re getting flamed and no one is taking it down is crazy 😂 This is kind of a nothing burger. Anyone upset by either side [sticky notes or the article] are silly. Pack it up, y’all. 🥹
y=mx+b
Jan 22, 2026 at 10:27 am
The sticky notes arent preventing anything that has to do with the use of a bathroom. you are still able to wash your hands, look in the mirror, and head back to class. Use it for it’s purpose, there’s no one forcing anyone to read any notes or believe anything. I am Hindu and I am inspired by people who are comfortable enough to spread the positivity. I understand people are different, but there was no need to write a whole essay about this.
c
Jan 22, 2026 at 10:23 am
the fact you had the audacity to release this is insane because this so more disrespectful than the sticky notes in the bathroom. this is a PUBLIC SCHOOL with PUBLIC OPINIONS. the sticky notes are not preventing you from washing your hands or going to the bathroom just simply don’t look at them. this has to be taken down because of how offensive this is.
Name (required)
Jan 22, 2026 at 6:35 pm
Yeah…but this article is also a PUBLIC OPINION.
pul
Jan 22, 2026 at 9:41 pm
this is not an opinion this is straight up disrespectful. yes you can have an opinion on religion and you don’t have to believe in anything but completely bashing a religion over some sticky notes in the bathroom is on another level💔🥀
Kelsey Sweet
Jan 27, 2026 at 12:24 pm
If you’re saying not to look at the sticky notes, maybe you should not look at the article! But I do like your involvement, and for the record, make sure to start your sentences with capital letters on the sticky notes.
lia
Jan 27, 2026 at 6:57 pm
Sticky notes and articles are two different things. No one cares about sticky notes on the mirror because people in schools have been doing that for years. However, an article criticizing a religion will bring lots of attention, as it did.
pupusa
Jan 22, 2026 at 10:14 am
its really not the serious. its not supposed to be offensive and its not forcing. . As a christian, this is very offensive and im sorry that you feel like we are “forcing” our religon on you over some sticky notes. if it really bothers you just take down the sticky notes are something like you don’t need to write a whole ahh story on why you think this is offensive. jesus loves you hun
papaya
Jan 22, 2026 at 10:14 am
Amen🙏Jesus loves you honey
Michelle Ch
Jan 22, 2026 at 8:46 am
Is this an actual issue
mia quigley
Jan 21, 2026 at 7:08 pm
They have been doing this since before I was a freshman and I’m graduating now. I do not go to church, nor am I Christian at all, but I’ve been seeing these corny sticky notes for 4 years and don’t get me wrong, I don’t condone bad outdated traditions but I have NEVER been offended by seeing them. Honestly, we should be appreciating them. Respect for going on the school website and writing an essay but this is SUCH a nonissue and should be the LEAST of this schools worries.
Kelsey Sweet
Jan 21, 2026 at 8:55 am
Very well written.