Complaint ends public prayer at N.M. high school

By The Associated Press

04.08.01

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The Alamogordo, N.M., school district has stopped allowing prayers at school-sponsored events after the American Civil Liberties Union complained about a prayer by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at a high school football game.

Superintendent Phil Knight said ACLU Director Peter Simonson of Albuquerque contacted Alamogordo High Principal John Jenkins "and basically said we were in violation (because) they had had a report that the students had given a prayer at the football games."

The district had taken the position that prayers could continue until there was a notice to cease and desist, Knight said. The complaint, he said, was that notice.

"We had a pretty amicable conversation," Simonson said. "I simply stressed to him that the law is pretty clear around these kind of issues ... of religion in the school."

"I think we understand the difficulties that schools, in particular in smaller towns, often times have fairly strong religious traditions," Simonson said. "But our issue, of course, (is that) even in those circumstances not one religion fits all."

Simonson said there's no law preventing students from conducting their own faith-based gatherings, "as long as other students or the public are not compelled to participate."

The ACLU agreed students could, for example, gather to pray around a flagpole, Knight said.

However, Alamogordo High cannot conduct, promote or formally facilitate prayers prior to football games, at graduation ceremonies and other school-sponsored events, Simonson said.

Though there was just one complaint, the person who wrote said several other parents expressed similar concerns, Simonson said. They felt their rights had been violated because they felt compelled to stand and join in a prayer they didn't endorse, he said.

Knight said the district must rethink how such organizations as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes conduct themselves, while still allowing students to practice their faith and exercise their constitutional rights.

The FCA, for example, eventually may no longer be allowed to fund raise on school property as it now does through vending machines. "We said we may have to look at that, and probably eliminate that at some point in time," Knight said.

Simonson said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Texas case last June made the issue clearer. The landmark ruling struck down the Santa Fe, Texas, district's school prayer policy. The 6-3 ruling bars students from leading stadium crowds in meditation and has cast doubt on prayer at graduation ceremonies or even moments of silence.

The ruling affirmed the 1962 ban on organized prayer in public schools. The court ruled a school that gives students the public forum for prayer is effectively sponsoring the message.

"Nothing in the Constitution ... prohibits any public school student from voluntarily praying at any time before, during or after the school day. But the religious liberty protected by the Constitution is abridged when the state affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.

Alamogordo school board secretary Harry Bloom said the FCA was important to have in school. "It gives a lot of kids that opportunity to exercise their faith together. It's important," Bloom said. "Christian values are important. ... My feelings are if you take Christian values and you strip them away from people, then what do you have? We still have to have faith in God."

In Tallahassee, Fla., over the objections of Jewish lawmakers, a House committee approved a bill on April 5 allowing non-sectarian prayer at public high school graduations and other non-athletic events.

The opposing legislators pointed to the prayers that visiting ministers offer before House sessions. They're supposed to be non-sectarian but often aren't, according to the Jewish lawmakers. If ministers have trouble delivering non-sectarian prayers, students will have an even harder time meeting that standard, the opponents warned.

"How do you expect schools all around the state to be able to control that if we're not even able to do that on our House floor?" asked Rep. Ken Gottlieb, D-Miramar.

In an 8-4 vote, the House Council on Lifelong Learning approved the measure (HB 1199), sponsored by Rep. Wilbert "Tee" Holloway, D-Miami. The bill would let school districts allow prayer at graduations or any other optional student assembly.

"It's long overdue," said Rep. Bev Kilmer, R-Marianna. "We're fighting so hard for the rights against things we forget people have rights to do things."

Opponents of the measure said it would return Florida to the days when Jewish children were stoned and ostracized for not participating in Christian prayers. Sheila Erstling, who represents the National Council of Jewish Women, told Kilmer that's exactly what happened to her as a child in Brooklyn.

"I was beaten up on the way home from school because I refused to stand up for a prayer that was against my belief," said Erstling, 66.

Kilmer said she found it hard to believe that students would be "taken outside and beaten up" for not praying.

Jewish lawmakers complained to House Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, earlier this week, saying prayers offered before session convenes violate guidelines requiring them to be nonsectarian.

Feeney said on April 5 that the prayers occur before the House sessions begin so members don't have to take part in them, and that he would never interrupt a member of the clergy engaged in prayer because it offended someone.

"I believe there is a protection for religious faith," said Feeney, adding that he supported the bill.

But Rep. J.D. Alexander, R-Lakeland, said the state was stepping on the rights of Christians to benefit atheists.

"I'm concerned that people of faith can't express their views," Alexander said. "What we're doing today is in fact trying to establish a religion called atheism."

Committee chairman Rep. Jerry Melvin, R-Fort Walton Beach, cut short the testimony of several of the bill's opponents, including that of American Civil Liberties Union representative Larry Spalding, who said the bill's aim was to put religion back in public schools.

"That is divisive and that is horrible public policy," Spalding said.

Five years ago, the Legislature passed a school-prayer bill, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Lawton Chiles. Gov. Jeb Bush would not say whether he supported the measure or not.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a ruling that let public school students in Jacksonville choose a class member to give a prayer or other message at high school graduations.