The Removal of Prayer from Public Schools Essay

Religion is one of the most controversial issues in society today. The concern of allowing prayer in schools is an on-going debate and has resulted in numerous lawsuits. Religious school clubs, after school activities, curriculums, and moments of silence during school are just a few of the court cases that judges have administered. People in favor of prayer in schools believe that their children can only learn certain values through religious practice. On the other hand, an individual against religious practice in schools views this issue as an infringement on his or her children’s rights as Americans.

Since the founding of America, there has been concern with the church manipulating government. The separation of Church and State was to make sure the church did not become more powerful than government. In spite of wanting a separation of church and state, The United States of America became one nation under God. The earliest test of the separation of church and state with respect to education is McCollum versus Board of Education. This was a landmark case the United States Supreme Court in 1948 ended the power of a state to use its tax-supported public school system in aid of religious instruction. “The court case which prohibited the state from sponsoring specific prayers in public schools was Engel v. Vitale, decided in 1962 by an 8-1 vote.” (Cline p) It is unconstitutional to compose a school prayer and make students repeat it daily. Although these cases protect our religious freedoms, there is some fear that expelling God from public school has adverse effects. God can still be present; teachers can lead by example and teach behaviors and ethics that

The case of Wallace v. Jaffree calls into question the constitutionality of an Alabama statute that authorized teachers to lead a one-minute period of silence for “meditation or voluntary” prayer in all public schools. Ishmael Jaffree, the parent of three students in the Mobile County Public School system filed a complaint that two of his three children had been “subjected to various acts of religious indoctrination,” as a result of Alabama statute 16-1-20.1 and asked for an injunction prohibiting Mobile County schools from “maintaining or allowing the maintenance of regular religious prayer services.” The purpose of Jaffree’s complaint was to prohibit the devotional services occurring in his children’s school and the consequent mockery of his children that occurred when they refused to recite the prayers to “Almighty God” (Stevens, 40). This type of law in Alabama public schools was not the first of its kind. Prior to statute 6-11-20.1, Alabama passed law 16-1-20 authorizing one minute of silence in public schools for meditation. After the authorization of statute 16-1-20.1 came 16-1-20.2, which allowed teachers to lead “willing students” in a prayer (Stevens, 40).

Due to the United States’ Supreme Court reviewing religious cases, on average, more than once a year since 1962, the Establishment Clause and Free exercise Clause have taken on a whole new meaning in public schools. Now, the two clauses are disjoined. The Establishment Clause has become the more favored one of the two, compared to the Free Exercise Clause, which is almost obsolete. Today, students

A public school in New York during the start of each school day started with the Pledge of Allegiance and followed by a nondenominational prayer. The New York state law also allowed students to skip the prayer if found offensive. A parent of a student attending this school sued deeming the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Supreme Courts majority rule (8-1) claimed YES the public school sponsored prayer violates Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, even with allowing students to skip the prayer, it was still considered unconstitutional. This case is important because Chief Justice, Earl Warren states that school sanctioned prayers, including any type of public promotion of religion, violates the Establishment

Intro- about 10 ten years ago, in the year 1951,the New York Board of Regents approved a “Quote” “nondenominational prayer”. It was 22 words long and The blandest of invocations read as follows: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and beg Thy blessings upon us, our teachers, and our country." voluntary prayer for recitation at the start of each school day. A group of parent in New Hyde Park, New York Steven Engel was a parent in New Hyde Park, New York. He and a group of other parents objected to the daily speaking of the prayer, even though it was voluntary, at the start of each school day. Steven Engel and his group of supporting parents sued William Vitale, the president of the local school board. The parents reasoning was that this optional prayer didn’t align with the views of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The 1st amendment says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The establishment clause states quote, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Originally, the Establishment Clause was only added to the Constitution to keep the federal government from establishing a national religion.

The issue of prayer in public schools is a highly discussed and salient topic. There are on-going cases in the courts regarding this topic of whether religion has a place in public institutions. For instance, I came across an article on the New York Times titled “Illinois School Settles Separation of Church and State Case”, where a public school has agreed to discontinue the practice of asking students who take the bus to arrive early for optional religious lectures at a Roman Catholic parish (Press). This decision stemmed from the legal challenge brought upon the school. Prior to this legal challenge, generations of students from the Teutopolis Grade School have begun their day with Catholic Mass or other prayer services at the St. Francis

Background of the Case: In 1951 the New York state Board of regents (state board of education ) approved a twenty two word “ nondenominational” prayer to the new york public schools to be recited each morning. It read as follows “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.” The school board believed it would increase good citizenship, promote good morals, and develop good character. The parents of ten pupils disagreed, they filed a lawsuit in a new york state court seeking a ban on the prayer. The court ruled to uphold the prayer in public schools as long as the school did not force any student to join in the prayer over his or his parents objection.

The Pledge of Allegiance, is one of those common patriotic traditions that was shared among most American students. Americans had possibly never thought that the every week day narration of the Pledge in the public schools might violate the Constitution 's prohibition on government organization of religion, or, to use the common phrase, might breach the ‘separation of church and state.’ In June 2002, a great deal of the United States was in shock that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because of the included two words “under God.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the federal statute codify the Pledge, as well as a California school communities policy supporting for

he issue that has come before the Court is whether or not the Christian tenets and prayer to a nondenominational God is in violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause. The Court has ruled, based on tests developed from Lemon v. Kurtzman and Agostini v. Felton that both the Christian tenets and prayer in the Court is a violation of the First Amendments Establishment Clause.

School Prayer by Tricia Andryszewski first starts off by, talking about the first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The students or even the teacher can’t read the Bible at school or even the lord’s prayer. They could not it in public schools. In the 1963 Justice Tom Clark, waiting for the Supreme Court. Alabama Governor George Wallace was going against them. He want them to be able to pray and read the Bible at public schools if they want to. I do not care what they say in Washington, we are going to keep right on praying and reading the Bible in the public schools of Alabama. The Supreme Court decision in 1963 was a bad law, bad history, and bad culture…. And if the Court doesn’t want to reverse itself, then we have an absolute obligation to pass a constitutional amendment to instruct the Court on its error.

The ruling of the court was that the Regents prayer was violating the constitutional clause and there was a 6-1 ballot or vote by the majority. It was also said that by using the prayer in the public school as a recitation by the New York Regents, was inimical with the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution because the use of the Almighty God is religious. Moreover, it was held that the constitution clause is an interpretation to show that religion is for the individual and personal and should not be recognized in a civil way. To support the ruling the Supreme Court, assumed that the prayer was too brief to lay any exposure or danger that it would be wrong since the same kind of capability to exclude all other religions from it could eventually be used to create a religion that could reject all other denominations. The agreement was not anti-religious but moderately, it sought to affirm the separation between the church, and the government, and supplementary said that neither sides, the church nor government had a legitimate to propose an official prayer for any precise group. The Santa Fe Independent School District v Doe is analogous to the Engel v Vitale court case because it describes a prayer being recited before a football game instead of a classroom. “Prior to 1995, a student elected as Santa Fe High School's student council chaplain delivered a

Mr. Gordon’s main argument is that, despite US Supreme Court ruling that prayers should be private, a high school in Texas has found a way to allow prayer, before football games. Before the game students lead the crowd in prayer. The issue of prayer being allowed in public schools, has been ongoing since 1962 when the US Supreme Court ruled, that prayer in schools was a violation of the First Amendment. Freedom of religion has a controversial history dating back as far as 550 BC. This article was from 2012, but the issue is still very controversial and will continue to be for many

In 1963, the U.S Supreme court made the decision to remove the Bible and prayer from public schools across the nation. Almost 55 years later, this ruling still causes tremendous controversy in today’s society. Since then, there have been multiple movements to revoke this ruling for the betterment of curriculum, further encouraged by the increasing crime rate in schools and a newfound knowledge about the early days of American Congress.

For much of the 20th Century and into the 21st, school prayer has been the focal point of an ongoing debate about the position of religion in American civilization. The question of the legality of prayer in public schools brings together a number of important notions in American government and legal philosophy. Opponents and proponents of school prayer set forth their arguments in such major constitutional issues as the separation of church and state, the right to free exercise of religion, and the respective powers of local, state, and national governments. Since hearing its first case on the issue in 1962, the United States Supreme Court has passed down at least one verdict dealing with school prayer in each consecutive decade. In result, this makes school prayer a durable and highly momentous topic in the fields of education and law. In the United States, there is a constant between people being able to pray in public or not. For the supporters of public prayer, the constitution supports their freedom of religion to be able to uplift prayers whenever they wish. For the ones who oppose public prayer, the constitution states the separation of church and state. The United States has had a moral decline since prayers were taken out of our schools. Until the early 20th Century, prayer was an accepted feature of public education. During the 18th and 19th centuries, America continued a de facto Christian homeland, and public school curriculum imitated this fact. The modern,