PRAYER IN SCHOOL - FOR AND
AGAINST
Kristi Robertson, a 33-year-old atheist in Oklahoma whose daughter discovered God and Christianity when her third-grade public-school teacher led the class in daily prayer. Four years later, Aurora, alone in her
family, still prays and goes to church.
A Michigan superintendent is pondering whether coaches should lead students in pregame prayer. A school board member in Florida wants her district to teach students about prayer and offer religious studies. In Hawaii, the leader
of a faith- and family-focused activism group sees a path to altering a state policy that says public-school employees cannot initiate prayer on campus.
Some time has passed since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Washington state football coach who knelt at midfield to pray and was joined by
student-athletes. The court wrote, in a 6-3 decision, that Bremerton High School assistant coach Joseph Kennedy’s prayers were protected by the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech and religious exercise, and that the district was wrong to discipline him for what the majority saw as a private act.
In response, families, teachers and activists are preparing to push religious worship into public schools nationwide — working to blur the line dividing prayer and pedagogy, and promising emotional, spiritual and educational benefits for students. Some school officials are listening: In at least three states, Illinois, Alabama and Oregon, school personnel have said they are reviewing their policies on employee prayer.
“Our nation has lost its way in having lost a belief of a higher power,” said Christi Fraga, a Miami-Dade school board member who in May successfully proposed establishing an annual day of prayer in her district. “So in my community... READ MORE
