Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993 TAG: 9306050213
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Willis said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, will be the first test in Virginia of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year on school prayer.
"Loudoun County schools, more than any other school system in the state, has participated in the planning and promoting of prayers at their graduation ceremonies," Willis said.
"The basic issue is the separation of church and state," he said, and Loudoun County "has chosen to brazenly ignore" the Supreme Court ruling by scheduling prayers at graduation ceremonies.
Loudoun County School Board attorney Bill Chapman said the actions by administrators are "clearly not prohibited" by the Supreme Court ruling and are supported by federal court decisions. Chapman said he hopes to get a ruling on the lawsuit before the June 24 graduation ceremonies.
In other school prayer conflicts around Virginia:
Harrisonburg administrators have agreed to allow Spotswood High School's student council president to say a prayer at the graduation ceremony. Jason Nauman had planned to file a lawsuit against the administrators.
According to a copy of Nauman's speech, he plans to tell his fellow students, "As we prepare to enter the real world as Spotswood High School graduates, we need to acknowledge God and bow our heads in prayer." A short prayer follows asking God to grant them guidance and wisdom.
Henrico High School, the ACLU contends, is violating the law by printing "invocation" and "benediction" on the graduation ceremony program, regardless of the prayers' initiation by students.
The Danville School Board has rejected a high school student's effort to pray during graduation ceremonies,
The George Washington High School student who was selected to give the welcoming address argued before a packed board room Thursday night that he should be allowed to include a prayer in his speech.
Student Bobby Marshburn said school officials are misinterpreting the Supreme Court decision against school-sponsored prayer. Marshburn maintained the decision does not prohibit student-initiated prayer.
However, board chairman Charles Majors said school attorneys, and attorneys with other school organizations, say that prayer during the June 19 graduation ceremony would violate the law.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that clergy invited by school officials couldn't deliver graduation prayers because such school-initiated actions violate the First Amendment's ban on government endorsement of religion.
Stuart Roth, a lawyer with the Virginia Beach-based American Center for Law and Justice, said schools are taking a stricter view of the decision than the Supreme Court or the Constitution requires.
Roth's group sent letters to all of Virginia's school divisions advising administrators that they could get around the Supreme Court decision by following a federal court ruling in Texas. A judge there said a school could have a graduation prayer if it was nonsectarian, approved by a majority of the seniors and initiated by students.
Principals at the four high schools in Loudoun County asked seniors to put the issue to a vote and the School Board passed a resolution encouraging the use of prayers at June 24 graduation ceremonies.
The majority of the seniors at all four schools voted for graduation prayers to be initiated by students.
by CNB