Prayer in school
... (Raskin 79) There are many issues regarding prayer in school. Whether or not public schools should allow religious student and/or groups to meet in the school and whether or not the display of the 10 commandments are constitutional permit able. ... The major conflict though is organized school prayer. Were teachers and administrators get involved in leading or encouraging prayer. There have been many incidents and cases regarding this issue, for example is it allowed to pray in school athletic gatherings? ... When I was in high school the football players from all the district high schools used to go to Sunday mass all together in the middle of the season. ... Prayer in school graduations is now unconstitutional too. ... Deborah Weisman graduated from Nathan bishop middle school, a public school in providence, at a formal ceremony in June 1989. It had been tradition that the principals from the middle school or high school in that district invite a member of a clergy to give invocations and / or benedictions at the graduations. ... The principal of this particular school invited a rabbi to deliver prayers to Deborah’s graduating class. Even though the Rabbi was given “the guidelines for civic occasions” that instated that the prayer should be nonsectarian. ... May the graduates of Nathan middle school so live that they might help to share it. May our inspirations of our country and for these young people, who are our hope for the future, be richly fulfilled” Amen The Father of Deborah Weisman was very distressed by this, and filed a suit against the school board. The school argued that these short prayers and others like them at high school graduations are of profound meaning too many students and parents through out this country who consider that due respect and acknowledgment for divine guidance and for the deepest spiritual aspirations of our people ought to be expressed at an event as important in life as graduation (Laubach 56). ... (Loren 45 ) The superintendent of the board of education of Union Free School district no.9, in New York directed the school principals to demand the teachers of their school to enforce the students to say a prayer aloud, at the beginning of the day. The procedure was adopted on the recommendation of the State board of Regents, an agency created by the state constitution, to which the state of New York granted legislative powers over the state public school system. These state officials composed and published as part of their “statement on moral and spiritual training in the schools”, they said “ we believe that this statement will subscribe to by all men and women of good will, and we call upon them to aid in giving life to our program” ( Justice Black34) The prayer was as followed: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents our teachers and our Country” The parents of ten students brought this action in a New York court saying that the use of this official prayer in the public schools was contrary to the beliefs, of both themselves and their children.