Virginia school district drops plans for posting Lord's Prayer in schools

Church & State, Nov 1999

Members of the Appamattox County, Va., School Board have dropped a plan to post the Lord's Prayer in all public schools after Americans United advised the board that the proposal would violate the Constitution.

Board members voted unanimously in September to display the prayer after listening to a presentation by an evangelical preacher. The policy also called for the district's four schools to open each day with a moment of silence.

Alerted by members in the area, Americans United contacted school officials and advised them that public schools may not post religious documents like the Lord's Prayer.

"The reason for the constitutional prohibition on religious endorsements and preferences is not that the Constitution requires schools to be hostile toward religion, but that it requires schools to remain neutral on religious matters, by neither encouraging nor discouraging particular religious points of view," AU Litigation Counsel Ayesha Khan wrote to school officials. "In this way, schools demonstrate appropriate respect for the legal right of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children."

. At a subsequent board meeting, members modified the policy to drop references to the Lord's Prayer. The new policy establishes a moment of silence in schools, saying that students may "meditate, pray or engage in any other silent activity which does not interfere with, distract or impede other pupils in the like exercise of individual choice:'

Superintendent Walter F. Krug told the board that he believes the new policy is constitutional.

In other news about religion in public schools:

* Americans United scored another victory recently when members of the North Kansas City School Board rejected a proposed Bible course put forth by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, a North Carolina-based Religious Right group.

In a letter to Superintendent Tom Cummings and board president Spencer Fields, AU attorney Khan warned that the National Council's curriculum is thinly disguised fundamentalist Christianity and that it would spark a lawsuit.

"I recognize that the Bible has considerable influence in Western literature and history and that it therefore has a proper role in public school study," Khan wrote. "However, experience demonstrates that there are enormous risks inherent in offering an elementary or secondary level course that is devoted exclusively to the Bible (as opposed to the full diversity of the world's religions). I have even greater concern here because the organization behind the effort to have the course added to your curricula has a demonstrated agenda that is inconsistent with constitutional requirements."

The board subsequently voted unanimously to reject the National Council's Bible curriculum.

0 The Augusta, Kan., School Board has voted to drop a policy that allowed students to read daily prayers over the school's public address system. The board had originally approved a policy permitting prayers in mid September. But members voted 4-3 to drop the idea after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened a lawsuit.

About 100 people showed up at a Sept. 20 board meeting to speak on the issue. Most favored the policy, although one woman, Becky Weston, whose daughter attends the local high school, threatened to sue if the practice continued. "The kids can already pray," Weston said.. 'They've got absolute freedoms. I'm not sure why this has become an issue.... This is not constitutionally sound. No one should have prayer forced upon them because someone decided it was time to pray."