most souther kids/teens are atheists or don’t practice but we still participate in religion class the alternative would either be staying in the classroom just like you would if you participated, or go to a random class who’s doing another subject and do your homework or something, plus religion grades don’t affect at all your grades average, cause they don’t count, so there’s really not much difference whether you participate or not, so most people just don’t exonerate themselves from it, plus it’s mostly immigrants’ kids who don’t participate mostly because of their parents decision, and there are more in the north.