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Santa
Rosa Country (USA): Nearly 400 graduating seniors at
Pace High School stood up in protest against the ACLU
and recited the Lord's Prayer during their graduation
ceremony on May 30, 2009. Many of the students also
painted crosses on their graduation caps to make a
statement of faith.
The prayerful protest by the students comes on the heels
of a lawsuit the ACLU filed against the Santa Rosa
County School District, claiming some of the teachers
and administration endorsed religion. The suit was filed
on behalf of two students, who said that the teachers
were promoting their views of religion.
The two teachers at Pace High School were Principal
Frank Lay and school teacher Michelle Winkler. The ACLU
alleges that during a dinner event held at the school,
Principal Lay asked the athletic director to bless the
meal. In another incident, the ACLU alleges that
Michelle Winkler's husband, who is not a school board
employee, offered prayer at an awards ceremony
According to the ACLU lawsuit, graduation ceremonies
during the past five years at Central, Jay, Milton,
Navarre and Pace High Schools in the Santa Rosa District
have included prayers by students often members of
groups like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or the
Christian World Order. The graduation ceremonies at
Santa Rosa Adult School and Santa Rosa Learning Academy
also have included prayers.
Leading up to the graduation ceremony, the ACLU demanded
that Pace High School censor students from offering
prayers or saying anything religious. In the end,
members of the student body were not permitted to speak
at the graduation.
The graduating class at the school, however, decided to
react against the ACLU bullying by taking a stand at
graduation. As soon as Principal Lay asked everyone to
be seated at the ceremony, the graduating class remained
standing and recited the Lord's Prayer.
ACLU attorney Benjamin Stevenson told ABC Channel Three
after the event: "Our feeling is that it's regrettable
that the students took over the ceremony to impose their
religious views on the audience who may not have shared
the same religious views.
"School officials have a responsibility to protect the
silently held religious views of others.”
Stevenson said that something should have been done to
stop the recitation of the Lord's Prayer and that it is
too early to know whether the ACLU will pursue further
legal action.
Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of
Liberty University School of Law, commented: “Neither
students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights
at the schoolhouse gate. The students at Pace High
School refused to remain silent and were not about to be
bullied by the ACLU.
“We have decided to represent faculty, staff and
students of Pace High School,” he said, “because the
ACLU is clearly violating their First Amendment rights.
Schools are not religion-free zones, and any attempt to
make them so is unconstitutional. |
