School Prayer

Ashdown is latest field in battle between those for and against it

Ashdown High School is all over the news these days over an old debate: school prayer It was back in 1962 that the issue of prayer in public schools first reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In Engel v. Vitale, the court said that government entities could not compose prayers for students to recite.

A year later in Abington School District v. Schempp, the court ruled school-sponsored Bible reading in public schools to be unconstitutional.

Since then, there have been numerous court battles between those who want official recognition of prayer back in schools and those who say such practices are an affront to the First Amendment.

Let’s be clear: Students can pray at school. No one can stop them. They can pray silently to themselves at any time. They can even gather independently in groups outside of class as long as the school and faculty have no role and other students are not compelled to participate or have their school work disrupted.

The issue debated all these years is public prayer, particularly public prayer with the participation, support or just tacit approval of school authorities.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Ashdown School District charging the district with allowing a band director to lead students in prayer and allowing prayer at football games, both of which the group says violates the law.

School officials say the prayers were student led and initiated and the teens have a First Amendment right to express their religion.

That may sound reasonable. But Ashdown is almost certain to lose if this ever makes it to court.

While we can applaud the point Ashdown is trying to make, it comes with known risks.

Whether we like it or not, the courts have been consistent in ruling that school districts and school officials cannot be involved in organized prayer on campus or at school sponsored events. And a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2000 held that even student-led public prayer “on school property, at school-sponsored events, over the school’s public address system, by a speaker representing the student body, under the supervision of school faculty, and pursuant to a school policy that explicitly and implicitly encourages public prayer” was unconstitutional.

The court also drew the distinction between “private” school prayer among those who choose to gather for that purpose, and “public” prayer in which an audience is required to be there, as in a classroom, or is only there for a school event such as a football game.

Basically, “private” school prayer is legal and “public” school prayer is not.

Prayer is alive and well on campus. Always has been, always will be. Students can pray. That’s never been in question.

No doubt those who favor more public expression of prayer will continue to try and circumvent prevailing law and those opposed will remain vigilant. So schools must be very cautious these days. They must navigate the law and avoid even the appearance of favoring one faith over another. Otherwise there could be an expensive lesson awaiting in court.