20 Facts About Jessica Ahlquist

Jessica Ahlquist was born on June 21,1995 and is an American activist and public speaker who filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Cranston High School West, where she was a student, to remove a religious prayer from its auditorium.

Jessica Ahlquist received death threats, and required police escorts to and from classes.

Since the lawsuit, Jessica Ahlquist has received a variety of media attention, and she has been an invited speaker at a number of events, including the Reason Rally, the Texas Freethought Convention and Skepticon 5.

Jessica Ahlquist has received a number of awards, including the 2011 Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist and the American Humanist Association's 2012 Humanist Pioneer Award.

Jessica Ahlquist was born in 1995, and lives in Cranston, Rhode Island.

Jessica Ahlquist is the oldest of four children and the daughter of a firefighter and nurse.

Jessica Ahlquist's family was religious, and she had been raised as a Catholic, but after her mother fell ill, she began to identify as an atheist.

Jessica Ahlquist describes herself as "a nerd" who loves Harry Potter and Facebook.

Jessica Ahlquist created a Facebook page to raise support for the cause.

At an August 2010 meeting of the Cranston School Committee, a subcommittee was asked to make recommendations about the disposition of the banner; Jessica Ahlquist attended the public meetings of the subcommittee in November 2010 and February 2011.

Jessica Ahlquist received death threats, and required police escorts to and from classes.

Jessica Ahlquist was awarded the Humanist Pioneer Award from the American Humanist Association.

Religious leaders from the Rhode Island State Council of Churches rallied to defend Jessica Ahlquist and condemn the language used to describe her.

Several months after the case was closed, in April 2012, Jessica Ahlquist received threatening letters in the mail from individuals describing themselves as "crusaders".

Jessica Ahlquist was an invited speaker at a number of events in 2012, spanning at least five US states and international media.

Jessica Ahlquist speaks at approximately one venue each month, including the Reason Rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on March 24,2012, the largest gathering of atheists in history, alongside Richard Dawkins, Adam Savage, Eddie Izzard, Paul Provenza, PZ Myers, Dan Barker and James Randi.

Jessica Ahlquist spoke at the Texas Freethought Convention in 2012.

Jessica Ahlquist is a frequent and popular guest on Freethought RI, a weekly radio show produced by the RI Atheist Society.

On June 25,2011, she was a speaker at Center for Inquiry transnational in Amherst, New York and on February 6,2012, in Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona, professor Richard Dawkins specifically discussed the threats Jessica Ahlquist had been receiving.

On February 21,2012, Jessica Ahlquist was interviewed live on CNN about the Cranston case.