Texas High School Agrees to Stop Banning Muslim Students' Prayers
by Jim Brown
January 31, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Texas high school has agreed to allow its Muslim students to pray during school hours. L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson had told its 30 Muslim students that praying on campus violated the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause, or the so-called separation of church and state. In an e-mail memo to all teachers and staff, the school's principal had stated previously that "No students are to be allowed to leave [the] classroom at any time to go pray." However, after the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty intervened on behalf of the students, the Richardson Independent School District (RISD) moved to change its policy on student prayer.
Derek Gaubatz is Director of Litigation for the Becket Fund. He says many school administrators have the idea from the American Civil Liberties Union or from somebody else "that the 'wall of separation of church and state' means no religious expression is allowed and that it's impossible to do."
Gaubatz contends that informing L.V. Berkner High School and district officials "of what the rights of students are and that, in fact, religious expression of students is fully compatible with the school's other missions is a powerful message to send to all school administrators." And that message is "one that they really need to hear," he adds.
"We wrote a letter pointing the school at the relevant legal authorities," the Becket Fund spokesman notes. In it, the religious liberty advocates wrote the principal of the high school and demanded that he "cease and desist" immediately the school's "illegal decision to punish Muslim students" for exercising their right to pray.
Then, the Becket Fund representatives "actually went down and met with them, explaining that, where there's private student expression involved, that this doesn't create any impediment under the establishment clause," Gaubatz says. "In fact," he emphasizes, "students have a right under the [U.S. Constitution's] free-speech clause and the free-exercise clause to engage in religious expression in schools."
As a result of the Becket Fund's intervention, RISD officials admitted on December 16 that there had been some "confusion" regarding their policy and declared that Muslim students, like others, have the right to pray on campus. According to the district's new policy, students now have both an opportunity and a designated place to pray in the school, either at lunch or during 10 minutes of class.
"The First Amendment is alive and well again at Berkner High," Gaubatz says. All students win, he asserts, when school districts recognize their obligation to accommodate private student prayer.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
