Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990 TAG: 9006010446
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PETER MATHEWS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Lew Sheckler said he began asking for signatures about three weeks ago. He brought the petitions to Boucher's Abingdon office Thursday afternoon.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. William Dannemeyer, R-Calif., is tied up in a House Judiciary subcommittee. Sheckler wants Boucher to sign a discharge petition that would get the bill out of the subcommittee.
Boucher, on recess from Congress, was unavailable for comment.
But during a town meeting in Christiansburg last week, Boucher told a questioner that he supported voluntary prayer.
"No school may prevent voluntary, quiet prayer," he said - but the state should not be in the business of selecting mandatory prayers.
Sheckler said the amendment wouldn't do that. According to a news release he sent out, it reads: "Nothing in this Constitution shall prohibit the inclusion of voluntary prayer in any public school program or activity. Neither the United States nor any state shall prescribe the content of any such prayer."
Sheckler said the amendment would take school prayer decisions away from judges and put them in the hands of local communities. Asked who would make those decisions locally, he suggested school boards.
He said districts could have prayers at graduation ceremonies, before athletic events or before school.
In 1988 the Radford School Board banned prayer at athletic and school functions after criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of some parents, that the practice violated the First Amendment.
"This gives the people the right to decide for themselves . . . instead of the ACLU or their radical left allies deciding.
"Removing prayer from schools is not a neutral action. That is an action that favors atheists."
Sheckler said a school board could designate someone to write the prayer, and he said those who objected to its content could simply not participate.
Loren Siegel, a lawyer for the ACLU, disagreed.
"We certainly object to any time a public official at a public event leads the public in prayer," she said.
"We have never objected to a child's right to exercise his religious liberty by engaging in private prayer in the school, but now we're talking about something that's entirely private, that's not encouraged or led by public officials."
Sheckler, a Radford University professor, is a member of Radford Concerned Citizens, a pro-prayer group formed during the 1988 dispute. He said the petition drive was not a group effort, although some members were helping.
He twice ran unsuccessfully against former Del. Robert Dobyns, D-Dublin.
by CNB