When I started at my new school this year, I was surprised that my home room teacher began every day by having our class say the Lord’s Prayer. I didn’t want to say it because I’m not a practicing Christian, and I told her so. She said it was okay and I could just go stand in the hall while the rest of the class was praying. She was nice about it, but I hate the idea of having to get up and leave the class with everybody staring at me. Should I even have to do that? No, you shouldn’t. Public school teachers can’t lead classes in prayer or readings from religious books. Even non-denominational (not from any particular religion) prayer is unconstitutional because teachers can’t promote any kind of prayer in public school. It doesn’t make it okay just because she says you don’t have to participate. Officially organized prayer at school is coercive, even if it’s called “voluntary.” Like your case: you’re forced to either pray or to protest in front of your classmates, which might be embarrassing or get you harassed. Our teacher likes to start the class with a moment of silence so that we can pray if we want to. Is that okay, since she’s not really forcing us to pray? Maybe. It’s unconstitutional for schools to require a moment of silence for voluntary prayer. If the real reason for your teacher’s moment of silence is to encourage your class to pray, it’s not okay. A moment of silence might be okay if a teacher can show a non-religious reason for it—like giving students a moment to think about the upcoming school day. Our high school is planning to have a rabbi or priest say a prayer at the graduation ceremony. Is that allowed? No. Prayers by clergy or anyone else at public school graduations are unconstitutional. Graduations are school-sponsored events and schools can’t include prayers on their program. My school said that it would let the students vote on whether to have a student-led prayer at our graduation. That way, students would have a choice and the school wouldn’t be forcing religion on anyone. Is that allowed? No. Student-led prayers aren’t allowed at graduation, even if students vote for them. Think about it: If you vote on whether to have a graduation prayer, students whose religious beliefs are in the minority will lose out. They might feel excluded from their own graduation. Or they might feel pressured to participate in the prayer In the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, by allowing the prayer, regardless who recites it, the students and attendees who subscribe to that religion will feel like they belong to the preferred faith, while followers of other religions or no religion will be made to feel like outsiders. The school cannot be allowed to choose which faith is best. My school has student-led prayers at the beginning of every one of our home football games. Some of the kids and their parents don’t like it and say it’s unconstitutional. Are they right? Yes. School-sponsored prayer doesn’t belong in public schools, even when it is led by students themselves. So student-led prayer at school football games, sports-team banquets and other school-sponsored extracurricular activities is unconstitutional.
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