State Rep. Webster Barnaby has filed a bill seeking to give high schools the right to say anything, including prayers , using the stadium microphone before high-school playoff games. The bill touches on the First Amendment rights to practice one’s faith and free speech and to be free from government-imposed religion. It follows a court battle between Cambridge Christian School in Tampa and the Florida High School Athletics Association, that began at the 2015 2A football championship game. Both teams, Cambridge Christian and University Christian School of Jacksonville, wanted to allow the players’ pregame prayer to be carried on the public-address system at Camping World Stadium in Orlando and heard by the entire crowd. But the FHSAA, which managed the pregame program, denied their request out of concern that it might suggest a government-imposed religious practice. The case was dismissed at the district-court level, but the Court of Appeals sent the case back, and it remains ongoing. Cambridge Christian points to the 2012 championship game between University Christian and Dade Christian School, when praying over a loudspeaker was allowed by the FHSAA, as it was prior to the other three FHSAA contests in which Cambridge Christian competed during the […]
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