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The Courier-Journal – May 20, 2006
Graduates stage protest prayer
Judge had ruled against Russell plan
By Peter Smith
A federal judge ordered school officials and a student not to include a scheduled prayer at last night's Russell County High School graduation ceremony.
But about 200 seniors responded at the event by standing during the principal's opening remarks and reciting the Lord's Prayer. That prompted a standing ovation from the standing-room-only crowd in the school gymnasium.
And thunderous applause drowned out the last part of the prayer.
Judge Joseph H. McKinley of the U.S. District Court in Bowling Green had ruled earlier in the day in favor of a lawsuit filed by an anonymous graduating senior who said he was offended by graduation prayers.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which represents the student, said the prayer would have violated the constitutional ban on government-sponsored religion.
"This case is not about whether people can pray," ACLU lawyer Lili Lutgens said. "It's about families and individuals deciding for themselves whether, when and how to pray. Our founders intended that these sorts of religious decisions be made by individuals and families, not government."
The student who filed the suit was identified only as John Doe, and McKinley allowed him to remain anonymous. Lutgens said the student feared retaliation.
The U.S. Supreme Court has not explicitly ruled on student-led prayers at graduations, but it banned clergy-led prayers at graduations in 1992. And it banned student-led prayers at high school football games in 2000.
Mathew Staver of the Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which often represents Christians in church-state disputes said neither of those rulings apply.
He maintained that if students elect a peer to give a message -- without specifying it as a prayer -- the student can say what he or she wants, including a prayer.
The lawsuit alleged that graduation prayers in past years at Russell County had included "sectarian Christian invocations and benedictions given by students," that refer regularly to "God" and "Jesus."
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060520/NEWS01/605200365&SearchID=73245158637516
WHAS-11 – May 18, 2006
Student questions constitutionality of prayer
Arshiya Saiyed is one of those girls that seems to get everything done in a day: school, volunteering, extra curriculars. “I was planning graduation with the senior committee when this comes," she says.
“This” started as something she heard in that committee -- a religious graduation prayer. “Terms like Jesus Christ, heavenly father, I talked about the fact I was Muslim and the prayers in the past were offensive to me," she says.
Arshiya and other students were also concerned it wasn't constitutional. But almost the minute she questioned the religious prayer, Arshiya started getting harassed by a group of students, some in individual meetings, and one student who told her he wanted her out of the country.
Arshiya said a teacher criticized her. "The class committee sponsor was hostile to the group and made it known our opinion didn't matter, it wasn't up to us, it was up to the principal.” But Principal Gary Kidwell says it's not his choice: “There's nothing that's come across my desk that finalized a prayer or anything like that.”
Kidwell says a prayer of some sort has been at graduation for years. He says they're working on the right plan for this year, but doesn't want anyone harassed. “I'm aware of one isolated incident there was inappropriate conduct I was aware of, and we dealt with those."
But while the American Civil Liberties Union can't comment specifically on the case, it says schools have to be careful with graduation speeches. “The closer it looks like school sponsored the more likely it's found to be school sponsored,” says the ACLU’s Lili Lutgens.
Arshiya says she's all for a moment of silence, but not a religious prayer: “We should be able to do that on our own and not at a state-sponsored public school.”
http://www.whas11.com/education/stories/WHAS11_TOP_SchoolPrayer.549dba28.html
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