Immediately cease the practice of prayer to open school board meetings, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is urging the Gateway Unified School District Board of Trustees. On Jan. 18, the board made a motion to open meetings with prayer, which passed after a 3-2 vote. The national state/church watchdog, however, is pressing the board to reverse course. “We ask that the board cease imposing prayer upon students, staff and community members in order to comply with the Establishment Clause and protect the constitutional rights of students and parents,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line writes to Gateway Unified School District Board of Trustees President Cherrill Clifford. There is more than 60 years of solid U.S. Supreme Court precedent against school-sponsored prayers, FFRF reminds the board. FFRF notes that the Supreme Court has struck down school-sponsored prayer because it constitutes government favoritism towards religion, which violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The court’s recent decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District has neither altered the law regarding these kinds of coercive prayer practices nor has it overruled these previous decisions. Furthermore, in striking down a school board’s prayer practice, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction […]
