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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992                   TAG: 9201140337
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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SCHOOL-PRAYER RIGHTS NEEDED

LEW SHECKLER, candidate for Congress, supports a school-prayer-rights constitutional amendment, and he criticizes Congressman Rick Boucher for opposing it. Boucher answers by cleverly ducking the question.

He tells us that he has always supported the right of students to pray. Boucher says that, for example, he supported a 1984 law that made meeting rooms available to groups wishing to hold voluntary religious meetings outside of school hours.

Our congressman ignores the fact that the Radford School District bans prayer at all school-sponsored events, including graduations. And he ignores the fact that any school district in the United States can also legally impose a prayer ban. The 1984 law fails to help this situation at all.

He knows very well that a constitutional amendment is needed to guarantee school-prayer rights. Nevertheless, Boucher refuses to support a constitutional amendment.

His actions against school-prayer rights speak so loudly that I cannot hear his words of support. Words are cheap (and sometimes deceptive); actions count. KAY LONG

RADFORD

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