Legality of prayer at convocation- A question.

[callous taoboy]

I teach in a public school, and my question for anyone out there who may know is whether or not it is legal for our superintendent to have us remain standing after the flag pledge in order to lead us in prayer during our back-to-school convocation each August.

[MineralMan]

1. No, it isn't legal. Contact the ACLU, and they will probably

send the superintendent their standard cease and desist letter.

Representatives of government agencies may not offer prayers at any event you are required to attend. It is that simple.

[callous taoboy]

4. Thank you. I will. Some district employees have been

displaying their flagrant disregard for the rule of law in this area. Our school principal shared a story during last year's convocation: She had a boy in her office in trouble for cursing and she said something to him like, "If your mother were on one side of you and God on the other, who would you be most afraid to hear you say the things you said?" She added, to us (all 300 employees of the district), "See, I'm not a big believer in separation of church and state."

[callous taoboy]

5. I have contacted the ACLU. Thanks.

[MineralMan]

6. There you go. They should be happy to help.

Let us know what comes of this, please.

[callous taoboy]

7. Well, I should know something on Aug. 17

at the opening convocation. :thumbsup:

I also requested that they send the superintendent information on separation c / s in education with a letter encouraging him to share this with all district personnel. I let them know that our school science committee decided to nix a web-based learning tool due, in part, to it representing evolution as fact and not theory (their words, not mine) which reads as we were using a site that assumed that classroom teachers were hip to the fact that evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology.

[rd_kent]

2. Um, I would say no, not legal at all

I would walk away after the pledge.

[Deep13]

3. Unconstitutional.

This is what one must keep in mind. School prayer is not illegal. Officially led, directed or orchestrated prayer is illegal. So as soon as a school official is involved, it becomes a 1st Amend. violation.

[Babykayx]

8. From the way it seems to be conducted it's illegal

From the way it sounds... it's illegal. No one has the right to force you to stand and pray in their way, or pray at all. If you are forced or made to feel like you have to... then it's illegal.

I don't have a problem with prayer at public functions or in public forms, but I think everyone has a right to believe as they may and ought not be forced to participate in something they don't belive in. That's just my 2 cents.

[mlevitt]

9. B.H.D.

The Superintendent is an employee of the school district, just like you. He wasted two minutes of your life as a private individual offering his opinion and best wishes in a public forum. BTW, what do you say if a faculty member or student sneezes in your presence? If you say "bless you", aren't you just as guilty as the superintendent? Lets all grow up! If this is the path the ALCU, et al, wish to pursue, do away with oaths of office, oaths in court and before Congress, chaplins in the military, Thanksgiving and Christmas as federal holidays, the national motto, prison priests for death row inmates, and so on. Let us secularists worship the Constitution as our national Holy Book. Then we can argue over conservative or liberal national theology...