Clubs can pray at ballgames if they use own P.A., says Alabama official

By The Associated Press

12.07.01

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DECATUR, Ala. — Religious clubs at Alabama public schools can pray at ballgames if they use their own public-address systems. But only if other clubs are allowed to use private equipment, too, according to an opinion by the state attorney general.

Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor issued the opinion after a Bible club at Tallassee High School asked to use its own public-address system to pray before football games.

The U.S. Supreme Court set the standard on June 18 when it let stand a lower court ruling in Chandler v. Siegelman, allowing students to participate voluntarily in group prayers at school functions, Pryor wrote in the opinion released last month.

Pryor wrote that the schools do not necessarily have to have a written policy for the opinion to apply.

Susan Salter is spokeswoman for the Alabama Association of School Boards. She said Pryor's ruling means that if school officials allow a nonreligious club, such as the Key Club, to set up a public-address system and make announcements to the crowd, then they must also allow a religious group to address the crowd, too.

Austin High School Principal Ed Nichols said such equal access wouldn't apply at his school, where administrators don't allow nonschool announcements at school events such as ballgames.

"The only announcements we make at school are ones that deal with the curriculum at the school," Nichols told The Decatur Daily for a story yesterday.

Lawrence County Superintendent Dexter Rutherford said that his school district does not allow any group to bring their own P.A. system to school events, so Pryor's ruling wouldn't apply. "Nothing has changed," he said.

Richard Leath, Limestone County Schools assistant superintendent, said the district has not had any request to use privately owned public-address systems at school events.

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