Board of Education to consider whether to allow open prayer at meetings
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on October 25, 2017 3:45 PM
The Wayne County Board of Education will consider whether to allow open prayer at its meetings when the board convenes in November.
The issue is included in the boards bylaws, an updated version of which will be on the agenda in November. Specifically, the bylaws would leave it up to the school board to determine what kind of invocation it wants to have, be that a prayer, a moment of silence or another service, given by a member of the local clergy or a local religious group.
At a work session Oct. 17, members of the board gave differing opinions on how the issue should be handled. Several agreed that sticking with a moment of silence in which everyone in attendance would be free to silently observe their faith would be the safest way to go, from a purely legal standpoint. Another option would be to send out letters to all local religious groups inviting their clergy to attend and give the invocation, but that could run the risk of involving only Christian clergy due to the religious makeup of Wayne County.
Under the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution, school boards and other government agencies are forbidden from establishing any law or policy which would advance a particular religion.
Board member Jennifer Strickland said that the board should stay its course on prayer.
"Personally, I think we should continue to pray before meetings," she said. "There are concerns about students being in the audience and feeling pushed toward a particular religion, but I feel that the prayer is for the seven people sitting up there on the board," she said, adding that everyone on the board professes to be a Christian. "If I felt like we were infringing our religious beliefs on someone else, I wouldn't support it, but I don't feel that's the case."
Strickland said that, given the religious makeup of the board, its members should be free to open the meeting with a Christian prayer. She said she intends to vote against a change to using just a moment of silence, but expects to be outvoted.
At the work session, board member Len Henderson said he felt the moment of silence was the best move.
"The more we talk about this, I think the safest thing would be to strike all the other stuff and say that all we're going to do is have a moment of silence," he said.
Board legal counsel Jack Edwards said that option would provide people flexibility.
"When you think about it, you're giving everyone the opportunity to everyone to do as they believe and as they please," he said.
Cases involving prayer across public schools have had mixed outcomes. In 1962, Engel v. Vitale declared prayer in public schools unconstitutional, and 1992's Lee v. Wiseman held that prayer at school graduation ceremonies violated the Establishment Clause. However, a federal appeals court decided earlier this year that a Texas school board could have student-led prayer at the beginning of its meetings without violating the constitution.
The board will vote on the changes at its Nov. 6 meeting.