Is there any legal support for prayer in public schools?

Question

Like my last one, pretty much says it all...

Answer 1

Let's just say, for the sake of discussion, that prayer WERE to be allowed in Schools. That the teacher would recite that prayer. Now, WHO'S prayer should the Teacher recite? A typical American Classroom is composed of a LOT of people from different Faiths. A prayer of ANY Faith is bound to "exclude" ALL the students of every other Faith in that classroom. Does the Teacher make the choice?? Suppose the teacher is a Wiccan, do you as a Christian want to be forced to sit through a Wiccan prayer? Or a Muslim prayer? Or a Hindu prayer? Does the teacher say a prayer for every religion that's represented in the class by his/her students? In a trypical American Class there may be as many as 15 or 20 DIFFERENT Religions represented there. That would involve more than an hour of JUST prayer in order to include EVERY student's Faith. Are you willing to extend the school day by an hour and a half JUST to have prayer in the public schools? Are you willing to PAY for that extra time by the teacher? Teachers can NOT be forced to work for free. That's called slavery. Additionally it would require every teacher go back to school to LEARN about EVERY single possible religion that exists. Who's going to pay for that "extra education"? You CAN'T force a teacher to pay for it, NOT after the teacher paid for the education that it took to learn the SUBJECT material that is SUPPOSED to be taught in schools. Finally, what is the PURPOSE of school prayer? To pray for success in your schoolwork? If you want success in your schoolwork then it is so much better if you just sit down and STUDY and DO the work assigned to you. Is it just another place to conduct your "religious experience"? Isn't that what your church is for? Isn't that what your parents should be doing with and for you?
So NOW you're going to say that you have a right to pray in school because the 2nd ammendment protects the right of Freedom of Religion. When the founding fathers put the amendment into our constitution they just didn't leave it as Freedom of Religion, they also added that the Government wouldn't "Establish" a Religion. that means that the government wouldn't declare ANY one religion to be the "official" Religion of the United States. They had JUST broken off ties with a government that HAD an "established" religion (The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church). The KNEW that to have only ONE religion that had the power of law meant that church could OUTLAW any other religion. The founding Fathers realized that at the time of the founding of the US there were already a LOT of religious sects in the US. WHICH one was to be the "Official Religion" of the U S? They saw that there were beginning to be people coming to the U S from OTHER parts of the world, many of which didn't even have Christianity as their religion. How were they to include THOSE people?They ALSO saw that a LOT of the people didn't have ANY religion at all. Should those folks be forced to accept the official religion? The establishment clause was added to protect everyone from having ANY religion whatsoever being forced upon anyone else. They established the concept of seperation of Church and State for that reason. It was put in there to protect YOU from being forced to follow someone else's religion and to protect everyone else from being forced to follow YOUR religion.

The United States MAY be a nation with a Christian majority however that fact does NOT make the U.S. a Christian nation. The U. S. is a secular nation, exactly as it SHOULD be. It is secular to prevent people from being forced to accept the Religious practices of a Faith that they do not belong to. The concept of seperation is in effect not only to protect others from YOUR religion it's there to protect YOU from others religious views. Think about that the next time you want to bring prayer into the public schools. If it DOES come down to that, I will be among the FIRST to walk in and demand that I be allowed to lead a prayer in a classroom. My prayer will be a recitation of the "Charge of the Goddess", a Wiccan prayer. Won't parents just be thrilled to hear that the FIRST official prayer in YOUR public school is the prayer of a WITCH? And I'll be within my rights because to invite prayer from ONE religiion invites prayer from ALL religions and, in the good old U S of A, Wicca IS a duly recognized religion with tax exempt status just like any other religion.

Keep prayer out of public school and let school be what school is SUPPOSED to be. A place where the young can learn the basic skills to survive in the world of today. Leave prayer in the Chruch and the home, where it SHOULD be in the first place.

Brightest Blessings,
Raji the Green Witch

Answer 2

Depends. Did you know the University of Virginia, which Thomas Jefferson founded, REQUIRED chapel attendance all the way up to the first World War? Benjamin Rush, the "Father of the Public Schools" wrote a great essay on the Bible being used as a textbook in the schools. I don't think it should be used as so, but his arguments were very persuasive. I like Jefferson though. True Republican. Don't agree with his religious views of course but he was a great Republican. He is so Republican that he made me leave association with the Republican party... The Republican and Democrat party is virtually identical.

Answer 3

No.

And to do so would be infringing on our rights as American citizens...the freedom of religion.

People are perfectly allowed to pray on their own, even within a school. But there is no legal support for the country to overlook the freedom Americans are supposed to have by forcing students in public schools to pray.

Answer 4

I think that there must be since I heard that Muslims have prayer times in public schools. But Christians don't need certain times to pray, neither do they need to pray aloud. They get to pray all the time--"without ceasing"--and without anyone knowing about it.

Answer 5

A local h-school allows public prayer in the morning and a bible study group- so there are some schools who are still being obedient to the Word of God--and as for the others--they will answer for their mistakes.

Answer 6

The best legal ARGUMENT (not the same as support) I believe is that the Constitution is never explicitly applied to state government, and schools are state entities.

There was a court case that extended it to states based on, I think, the equal protection clause.

Answer 7

Yes. You can pray all you want. You just can't make other people pray with you. Even the ACLU will support your right to pray by yourself, as long as you aren't doing it during class out loud. That counts as a distruption, no matter what you're saying.

Answer 8

Nope

Answer 9

I am sure if you stand up in the middle of class and pray out loud you will probably get suspended. Now if you bow your head at your desk and pray to yourself I don't think there is much they can do to ya but with the loopholes in laws, who knows.

Answer 10

yeap, constitutionally of course............
Congress shall make no law.........
umm..............at the Very Least congress can not remove prayer in public school...............
O and of Course the first Admendment, Freedom of Speech...........................