Can I attend a public school and openly pray?

Question

What I am really getting at is, if I recognize no religion but I am a spiritual person, can I openly pray and practice my own spirituality in a public school?

Answer 1

You have the right to pray in school, but you do not have the right to disrupt the school or class with it, or promote a religion.

Answer 2

Sure, you can openly pray. If you insist on praying out loud, go someplace where nobody else can hear you. Keep your prayers between you and your god. I fail to understand why christians (and apparently "spiritual" people) feel that prayer is some kind of big show, that they have to do it out loud and show people how righteous they're being by praying.

You can do anything you want at school silently and in your own mind. You can't spout things out loud and in inappropriate situations (if you're praying out loud when a teacher is trying to give a test, you'll get in trouble -- but it would be the same if you were reciting the constitution out loud when a teach was trying to give a test! Has nothing to do with prayer).

Answer 3

Yes. You can even pray with others, so long as you do so without disrupting the educational schedule and aren't being led by an employee paid by public funds. Separation of church and state is there not to prevent people from practicing their religions but to protect your right to do so according to your chosen forms, without an authority figure dictating what your practices should be.

Answer 4

Yes, students have every right to pray in school. The law just says that the prayers can't be lead by a teacher. The reason why I don't ever want to teach at a public school.

Remember, "As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in public schools." What can they really do to stop it?

Answer 5

You can pray ALL you want in public school and in the government and anywhere and NO one will hate it or stop you. People completely misunderstand the fact that no REPRESENTATIVE of the school or state can ENDORSE a practice by having it as part of the school's normal program. Over and over and over again people misperceive this. BECAUSE of separation of church and state, people HAVE the right to practice their religion in school and anywhere. My nephew says his prayers openly in his public school because of the fact that the school doesn't endorse any particular practice that would inhibit his right.

Answer 6

Of course you can! The law states that teachers can not make a student pray, but students can lead or pray by themselves. Teachers as well can pray as long as they do not force students to. If I couldn't pray throughout the day , I'd probably say some things i shouldn't!

Answer 7

In my school we had a moment of silence. Everyday the same people would bow thier heads and pray to themselves, before they even got half way done with the prayer most of the "teachers" told us to sit down, theyd still finish thier prayers. They cannot do anything about it.

Answer 8

Lets see what the Bible say..."But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:6

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have already received their reward
Matthew 6:5."

Answer 9

yes definitely. Me and my mom pray for me to have a good day at school every morning. And I go to a public school.

Answer 10

You can, but ask yourself this:

Am I praying in public because I'm that fervent a believer, or am I just doing it so everyone notices how pious I am, and I'm mostly putting on a show for them?