Monday, March 1, 2010
Federal Judge Rules School Board Prayer is Indeed Constitutional
Last week a federal judge ruled that it is not unconstitutional for the Indian River School Board to begin its meetings with a Christian prayer. The ruling was made by District Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr., who threw out the lawsuit brought by two Jewish families, "Jane and John Doe" and Mona and Marco Dobrich, against the Sussex County School district. The plaintiffs sued the district, claiming that the school board, by praying before meetings, violated the constitutional separation of church and state. In his ruling Judge Farman stated that because the elected school board is closer to a legislative body than a school, their prayer is indeed permissible.
The lawsuit was first filed back in 2005, after the Dobrichs were upset when a Christian prayer was said at their daughter's school graduation. They alleged that the school board and school district were promoting Christianity, which created "an environment of religious exclusion." The federal suit also charged that students involved in Christian religious groups received preferential treatment. One district teacher allegedly told his class that there is "only one true religion," a science teacher allegedly told her class she did not believe in the big bang theory, then encouraged her students to attend the Bible Club.
Last year, the school district settled the bulk of the lawsuit by making undisclosed payments to the families. It also promised to not promote a specific religion and instead adopt new policies to help encourage tolerance and settle diversity issues. The Dobrich family withdrew the suit and has since moved out of the district.
The settlement intentionally left out the issue of the school board's prayer so that it could be decided separately, which was left up to Judge Farnan. He concluded that the Indian River School Board did not use its prayer policy "to proselytize or advance religion," so he believed that the court "may not demand anything further of the board."
It was quite interesting to read about this ruling after last week's class, when we discussed the numerous cases regarding prayer/religion in public schools. I personally feel that Farnan's ruling does not uphold the rights that the Constitution guarantees Americans. In Engel v. Vitale, the court ruled that it was unconstitutional to say a morning prayer in New York public schools, and that prayer wasn't even a prayer for a specific religion! Even though the prayer was essentially made-up and written by the board of New York, the court ruled that because there was obvious religious intent, it breaks the wall of separation between church and state. In this case with the Indian River School board, the intent is crystal clear: the offering of a Christian prayer at the start of a meeting has obvious religious intent. For Judge Farnan to make a ruling allowing the school board to continue saying this prayer seems to be breaking that wall of separation and to be giving preference to a specific religion over other religions, which is just as unconstitutional as giving preference to religion over non-religion.
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