Public School Sued Over Rule About God
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A Swainsboro, Georgia school system is being sued by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) for encouraging prayer in the classroom.
The lawsuit alleges two Emanuel County School System teachers, Kaytrene Bright and Cel Thompson, forced the children of anonymous plaintiffs Jane and John Doe — who are raising their kids as atheists — to participate in prayer. They were allegedly told to recite, “God our Father, we give thanks, for our many blessings. Amen,” or leave the classroom and sit alone in the hall.
According to Rawstory.com, Bright took it a step further, allegedly telling one prayer-averse student that Jane Doe was a “bad person” for not believing in God, which eventually wore the student down until he joined the class in prayer. “Encouraging the Doe children to pray, or isolating and punishing the Doe children for electing not to pray, violates the deeply and sincerely held moral convictions of the Doe children and therefore their First Amendment rights,” the complaint, a matter of public record, reads.
The school system’s superintendent, Kevin A. Judy, posted a statement about the lawsuit on its website: “The Emanuel County Board of Education has been made aware through media outlets that we have been named in a lawsuit. Our school board attorneys have been notified and we will work with them through this process. It is important that our faculty, staff, students and parents continue their focus on academics. Due to this being a legal issue, there will be no further comments from the Emanuel County School System regarding this lawsuit.” Attorneys for the school district did not respond to a request for further comment.
FFRF attorney Sam Grover tells Yahoo Parenting that the district is public and, as such, cannot practice any religion or be in the business of endorsing religion to its students. “The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment dictates that the government, including government-run schools, cannot advance, prefer, or promote religion,” says Grover. “When teachers, who represent the school district, promote religion through prayer, they violate the constitutional rights of their students.”
Grover suggests more details on the school’s prayer practice will come out during an upcoming procedure whereby lawyers for both sides obtain evidence. But, he says, “Right now our information is that multiple teachers within Swainsboro Primary School lead their classes in Christian prayer prior to lunch. Teachers have asked students, including kindergarteners and first graders, to bow their heads, fold their hands, and pray.”
He says that even though there is no official religion attached to the school district and there cannot be under the law, the district’s policies make it appear that the district officially endorses Christianity to its students.
"Public school teachers cannot single out students who choose to exercise their personal conscience in a non-disruptive way during the school day," says Grover. “This protection prevents teachers from punishing students who refuse to stand during the pledge of allegiance, and also protects students who choose to pray silently to the god or gods of their choice during free time."
The suit also criticizes teachers for sending young children into the hallway to sit by themselves while the rest of the class prayed. “This was viewed by other students as a form of punishment and our plaintiffs’ children were picked on as a result,” says Grover, who wants the public to know that FFRF has no desire to sue public school districts. “This takes valuable resources out of our schools, which could be used to better educate students. But when a school district like Emanuel County Schools allows teachers to show such blatant disregard for the law and for the rights of students, then we cannot stand idly by. Now the decision to make this lawsuit as short and inexpensive as possible rests with the district. The prayer practice needs to stop.”
