School prayer forces launch grassroots push for Istook Amendment

Church & State, Mar 2002

Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment to put officially sanctioned religious worship back in public schools are trying to launch a grassroots movement aimed at convincing local governments to endorse the school prayer drive.

The movement got a boost recently in Washington County, Pa., where the Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution calling on Congress to pass a school prayer amendment introduced by U.S. Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.).

Istook's amendment, H.J. Res. 81, would reinstate official prayers in public schools and allow local governments to display religious symbols. It was introduced Dec. 20 and has 74 cosponsors. An earlier effort by Istook to amend the Constitution to allow for official school prayer received a simple majority in the House in 1998 but fell short of the two-- thirds needed to secure passage.

The Washington County drive was spearheaded by Diana Irey, a Republican who said she was motivated to act by the events of Sept. 11.

After the board unanimously passed the resolution Jan. 17, Irey announced that she would head up a campaign to send the resolution to every local government in the country and ask them to pass it. Irey said the effort would be volunteer run and involve no tax dollars.

A few weeks later, about 100 volunteers gathered at the county commissioners.' offices to stuff envelopes and prepare the mass mailing.

Some of the volunteers appeared to be unaware of what the court rulings dealing with school prayer actually say. One woman, Donna Falvo, said the Istook amendment would merely allow students to pray if they wanted to.

"Just the freedom to do it," she said, "It doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Muslim or Pentecostal."

In fact, such voluntary activity is legal in public schools now; the high court's decisions only bar coercive or school-- sponsored prayer.