Prayer in schools
Prayer in schools is a topic of considerable debate, particularly in the context of the United States, where landmark Supreme Court cases have shaped its legal landscape. The pivotal 1962 case Engel v. Vitale ruled that a nondenominational prayer recited in public schools violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion. Subsequent rulings, including Abington School District v. Schempp, reinforced this separation by striking down mandatory Bible readings in schools. The Lemon test, established in 1971, provides a framework for evaluating the constitutionality of state actions regarding religion in schools, affirming that any practice must have a secular purpose and not promote or inhibit religion.
Despite these restrictions, religious expression persists in various forms within public schools, such as personal prayers during non-instructional time and religious clubs. Polling data suggests a significant portion of the American populace supports the idea of allowing daily prayer in classrooms. Recent efforts by the government have aimed to clarify students' rights to private religious expression in schools, ensuring no discrimination occurs against such practices. As the dialogue continues, the tension between maintaining a secular educational environment and respecting individual religious freedoms remains a focal point in discussions about prayer in schools.
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Prayer in schools
Description: Prayers and Bible readings sanctioned by school officials were efforts to promote religious beliefs and values in students in public educational institutions.
Relevant amendment: First
Significance: The practice of reciting officially sanctioned prayers or reading from the Bible in US public schools was challenged as a violation of the doctrine of separation of church and state under the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Supreme Court rulings resulted in strong public criticism and in continuing efforts by Congress to reverse the court’s decision.
In 1962, the Supreme Court issued one of its most controversial decisions in Engel v. Vitale. At issue was a nondenominational prayer composed by the regents of the state of New York that was to be recited in public school classrooms by teachers on a voluntary basis. It read: “Almighty God we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our Country.” Justice Hugo L. Black, writing the opinion for the court, noted that the apparatus of the public school system was employed in the promotion of religion and thus resulted in a violation of the establishment clause. A year later, the court struck down a state-mandated practice of reading passages from the Bible without commentary in Abington School District v. Schempp. In his opinion, Justice Tom C. Clark applied the same “strict separation” analysis.
In its decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the court developed the establishment clause test that remains in use and is applied in church-state cases. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger wrote, “First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster ‘an excessive government entanglement with religion.’” The first element of this three-prong test was invoked in Wallace v. Jaffree (1985) when the court ruled unconstitutional an Alabama law requiring a daily moment of silence for prayer or meditation in public schools. In 1990, the court ruled in Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens that the 1984 law requiring schools to permit religious extracurricular clubs to meet in equality with all other extracurricular groups must be upheld. The Lemon test was then reaffirmed in Lee v. Weisman (1992), when the court struck down Providence, Rhode Island, public school principals’ use of members of the clergy to offer invocation and benediction prayers as part of the formal graduation ceremonies for middle and high schools. Eight years later, in one of the final major court cases addressing the issue of religion in the school setting as of 2020, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the court ruled that a Texas school's policy of student-led prayer conducted over the public address system before football games violated the First Amendment.
While school-sponsored or required prayer was still legally banned as of 2020, commentators noted that religion did still have a presence—perhaps even an increased presence—in the school environment largely in the form of prayers conducted on personal time in between classes or during lunch or through extracurricular activities. Ministries continued helping students organize clubs in several public schools, students often discussed the Bible in informal groups, and religious instruction could take place as part of after-school programs. Additionally, several classes incorporated objective history lessons about a variety of religions as part of the curriculum as this type of study is not considered unconstitutional. Although the percentage has declined somewhat over the years, by 2014 a Gallup poll revealed that 61 percent of Americans still felt that daily prayer should be allowed in the classroom.
In its efforts to define and apply the establishment clause, the court developed several perspectives on how best to ensure that government refrain from endorsing a particular faith while at the same time protecting the religious freedom of liberty and conscience. The result often was a confusing line of precedents that offered no distinct or enduring first principles that work in all situations. Despite continuing and heavy criticism levied against the court, however, its separationist stance on government-supported religion in public schools remained firm as of late 2020.
As criticism of this stance continued and the issue was brought to prominence once more when the Supreme Court reached a decision in 2019 not to review a case for appeal brought by a high school football coach who had been fired in 2015 for praying on the field at the end of games, the administration of President Donald Trump sought to use executive power to ensure that students' constitutional rights to freedom of religion and prayer while at school were protected. Part of this effort entailed updating existing guidance from 2003 issued by the US Department of Education regarding religious expression in public elementary and secondary schools to reiterate that no one in the school setting can be discriminated against for private religious expression. The guidance additionally stipulated that local education agencies receiving funds through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 must regularly certify that they do not have any policies in place that would prevent anyone from participating in constitutionally protected prayer. Under the guidance, any instances of complaints of such breaches of rights needed to be reported to the Department of Education.
Bibliography
Kaleem, Jaweed. "School Prayer 50 Years Later: What Do Americans Believe?" The Huffington Post, 19 June 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/school-prayer‗n‗3461479.html. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
Klein, Rebecca. "Most Americans Support Allowing Students to Pray in Public Classrooms." The Huffington Post, 2 Oct. 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/pray-in-public-school‗n‗5917000.html. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
Lawrence, Lee. "School Prayer: 50 Years after Ban, God and Faith More Present Than Ever." The Christian Science Monitor, 16 June 2013, www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2013/0616/School-prayer-50-years-after-the-ban-God-and-faith-more-present-than-ever. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
"Prayer and the Public Schools: Religion, Education & Your Rights." Americans United for Separation of Church and State, www.au.org/resources/publications/prayer-and-the-public-schools. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
Reilly, Katie. "Donald Trump Is Promising 'Big Action' on School Prayer to Rally Evangelical Voters." Time, 16 Jan. 2020, time.com/5765829/trump-school-prayer-evangelicals/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
Sneed, Tierney. "School Prayer Fight Begins Anew." U.S. News and World Report, 27 Aug. 2014, www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/08/27/school-prayer-fight-begins-anew. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.
Williams, Pete. "Supreme Court Won't Hear Case of HS Football Coach Fired for On-Field Prayer." NBC News, 22 Jan. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-won-t-hear-case-hs-football-coach-fired-n961216. Accessed 3 Nov. 2020.
