< PREVIOUS ] [ 2003 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Mark Twain once observed that God created idiots.
That was for practice. Then he made school boards.
While I have agreed with Twain on many occasions, our Salida school board actually did something right recently.
Start with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
...
There are two provisions. Legal scholars call them the
establishment clause
and the free-exercise
clause.
They often conflict.
The classic example is military chaplains. Since the
federal government pays them and provides facilities, they
could certainly be construed as an establishment of
religion. But if the military sends a soldier thousands of
miles from home, and provides no means for worship, then
the government has effectively prohibited the soldier's
free exercise.
Chaplains aren't controversial, but another version of this conflict keeps the courts busy.
Graduation ceremonies at Salida High School sometimes
involve a public student prayer. I say sometimes
because I can remember one when one of my two daughters
graduated, but I'm not sure I remember two. Graduations
here involve an elbow-to-elbow crowd, along with a feeble
PA system so that you can't really hear what's being said
up front.
Not that it mattered to me. Attending school events is just one of those duties of parenthood, and I don't care what they do at graduation ceremonies just as long as they do it quickly so I return to a good book in an easy chair, which is how we're supposed to spend our evenings.
As for the student prayer, is it unconstitutional
because it tends toward an establishment of religion
by governmental authorities? Or is it constitutional
because it's a free exercise
or free speech
by a student?
The federal courts have ruled both ways. In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prayers during graduation ceremonies violated the establishment clause. That same year, the Fifth Circuit Court said it was permissible to allow students to vote on having prayers at their graduation.
But in 1995, the Third Circuit said schools could not allow such student votes because the school district was so involved in the ceremonies that it amounted to an establishment of religion.
And in 1999, the Ninth Circuit ruled that sectarian and proselyting speeches at graduation could be prohibited because people could reasonably get the impression that the message was supported by the school district. The Supreme Court let this stand. So here the establishment clause conflicts with free speech, as well as free exercise.
Although the federal court rulings vary, the trend seems clear: no matter how you arrange a student prayer at a public school graduation, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to do it in a constitutional way.
As I mentioned, I don't really care what they say at graduation ceremonies. If it gets too pious, I can always recall that Voltaire was educated by Jesuits, and he grew up to be a great skeptic.
But I have friends who are mightily disturbed that their property taxes are going to a school district that supports a religious observance by allowing a student prayer at graduation -- prayers that contradict their own religious beliefs.
There's also the American Civil Liberties Union, which threatened to take the Salida school district to court.
Upon hearing of the potential lawsuit, the school district did the right thing. The school board voted against allowing graduation prayers in the future. Money from taxpayers, the board agreed, should be used for educating students, not for lengthy and expensive litigation.
That fiscal prudence should have pleased local conservatives, but of course there has been much public complaint about how our school board was buckling under to the evil ACLU, and that the district should have fought for principle, no matter what the cost.
The principle seems dubious on Christian grounds, since Jesus told his followers not to pray in public, but instead to go to the closet and shut the door. And it's not as though school districts are committed to the principle of free speech or free exercise for students, and would litigate to protect these student rights.
There's one thing our school board could have done to
make its decision more politically acceptable here: Issue a
statement that We can fight the ACLU, but the funds will
have to come from the money we can save by terminating the
football program.
Then there wouldn't have been any
complaints.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 2003 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >