Prayer in school
Offline I'm stuck in a predicament, and I came here to ask what reasonable options I have.
Basically, the situation is this: I'm apart of the ROTC program at my school, and I'm also enlisted in the US Army. As seniors, our job is to decide amongst ourselves what to do for the manditory Veterans day ceremony Nov 12th for the entire school (We are a tier 1 school, so we are required to have this ceremony). All we have to do is come up with material, the administration just provides us on the topic. Now for the fun part:
As you might have guessed, the very first thing we were told to do is to have a prayer. Yes, prayer for veterans in front of the entire school. Perhaps its just me (In all honesty, it isn't, as I know of quite a few atheists who attend my school) but I feel this isn't right. I take offense to this prayer for many reasons. One, I'm enlisted myself, and this is not a fair representation of all veterans and current military personell. It isn't a fair representation off all the students attending this manditory ceremony, and it isn't fairly representing the group of people who brought the entire ceremony together.
Tomorrow, I plan on going to someone in the administration and telling of my opinions. I've already put a letter in to the local newspaper about this incident. I doubt they will allow the prayer to be allowed after all is said and done, but in case they do, I want to get it as much attention as possible to show that we at least tried to prevent it.
Tell me, what are your opinions on this? What is my best possible course of action?
As a side note, one of my classmates jokingly had me in charge of leading the prayer. After we had a chuckle at it, he then said "Ok you can say the pledge" (To which he knows I have problems with).
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School authority nor military authority can supercede the laws.
Maybe you can find some info here
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/religionandschools/prayer_guidance.html
BTW I just noticed the title to this article is in error. Prayer is not specifically constitutionally protected as it insinuates here
People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.
Thanks for that article. Here are two interesting things I gathered from it that are applicable:
"Student Assemblies and Extracurricular Events
Student speakers at student assemblies and extracurricular activities such as sporting events may not be selected on a basis that either favors or disfavors religious speech. Where student speakers are selected on the basis of genuinely neutral, evenhanded criteria and retain primary control over the content of their expression, that expression is not attributable to the school and therefore may not be restricted because of its religious (or anti-religious) content. By contrast, where school officials determine or substantially control the content of what is expressed, such speech is attributable to the school and may not include prayer or other specifically religious (or anti-religious) content. To avoid any mistaken perception that a school endorses student speech that is not in fact attributable to the school, school officials may make appropriate, neutral disclaimers to clarify that such speech (whether religious or nonreligious) is the speaker's and not the school's."
"Teachers, Administrators, and other School Employees
When acting in their official capacities as representatives of the state, teachers, school administrators, and other school employees are prohibited by the Establishment Clause from encouraging or discouraging prayer, and from actively participating in such activity with students. Teachers may, however, take part in religious activities where the overall context makes clear that they are not participating in their official capacities. Before school or during lunch, for example, teachers may meet with other teachers for prayer or Bible study to the same extent that they may engage in other conversation or nonreligious activities. Similarly, teachers may participate in their personal capacities in privately sponsored baccalaureate ceremonies."
So basically this is in agreement with me, they are not allowed to do such thing, unless I misread.
Yes. They are not allowed to condone, participate, or do anything that has to do with prayer. The fact that they suggested it is against the law and I'd be sure to throw that in.
I've just sent an email to the principal to figure out what her she believes is going on that day, and if she has to approve of everything that happens in order for it to appear in the ceremony. Regardless of her response, I think she's fucked either way.