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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 5, 1995                   TAG: 9507060041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SALLY STREFF BUZBEE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS                                 LENGTH: Medium

PRAYER RULINGS WORRY TEACHERS

David O'Connell, whose students practice ``a whole lot of different religions,'' says he's offended by critics who call teachers godless secular humanists opposed to school prayer.

``I'm a Christian,'' the longtime teacher and counselor said Tuesday. ``I pray in school on my own time, when I need it. I just don't push it on other people.''

O'Connell and other members of the National Education Association, the nation's biggest teacher union, said they worry that recent Supreme Court actions allowing student-led prayer at graduations could erode church-state separation.

In his suburban Philadelphia middle school, with youngsters from 54 countries observing ``a whole lot of different religions,'' the separation is a necessity, O'Connell said.

``We have Muslim kids who want to pray five times a day in our school. We have Christian kids, Jewish kids, Asian kids. If we have a student-led prayer at a graduation, whose prayer is it going to be?'' asked O'Connell, an educator at the Beverly Hills Middle School in Upper Darby, Pa.

But while they worry about high-profile arguments over school prayer, many teachers here said struggles over religion haven't arrived at their schools.

``There's a lot of rhetoric right now,'' said Annabella Lastowski, who teaches social studies in the sixth grade in Swiftwater, Pa. ``But when you get down to it, most people feel pretty comfortable with the way things are.''

Lastowski uses the Bible as a historical text when she teaches ancient history to her sixth-graders. ``It's part of the historical record. You can't ignore it. And I don't get complaints from parents, either the religious or the nonreligious ones.''

Joyce Arceneaux, a choir teacher in Natchez, Miss., said her students sing sacred songs during state music contests, ``because it's part of the musical literature. It's not sung as worship.''

But in a state where ``both parents and teachers are strongly religious,'' controversies have arisen over students' desire to lead prayers over intercoms during school hours, Arceneaux said, and she worries that a recent Supreme Court decision on graduation prayer will add fire to those controversies.

The court lifted a ban on student-led graduation prayers in nine Western states June 26, but it skirted the broader school-prayer issue, which officials said had sparked ``religious warfare'' in public schools nationwide.

Although not a precedent-setting ruling on such prayers, the court's action in an Idaho case was a victory for school-prayer supporters. But confusion still reigns over just what the Constitution allows.

``This is something we're just going to have to wait and see how it shakes out,'' Arceneaux said.

In recent months, some religious and civil liberties groups - hoping to head off future lawsuits - have published guides clarifying laws on prayer and schools.

Generally, a student can pray in school if the prayer doesn't interfere with lessons; religious groups have equal right to after-hours use of school buildings.

But teachers and other school officials cannot lead prayers during school hours, because that is considered state sponsorship.