THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501260056
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER AND ESTHER DISKIN, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
IT MAY TURN into the hottest education issue this year, but guess who teens say is being ignored in the mushrooming debate? Yup, teens.
``No one cares about our opinion,'' said Alicia Luma, a junior from Virginia Beach who is being home-schooled. ``Our parents get to decide for us.''
The topic is prayer in school. Since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1962, students have been banned from organized vocal prayers in school. But with the Republican takeover of Congress last November, prayer advocates say it's time to change that.
U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, the new speaker of the House of Representatives, has vowed to push this year for a constitutional amendment allowing organized prayer. To become law, it would have to be passed first by two-thirds of the members of Congress and then by three-quarters of the state legislatures.
For now, politicians in Washington are putting the issue on hold to concentrate on other items, like welfare reform and term limits. But in Virginia, the State Board of Education next week is expected to discuss proposed guidelines to help clarify what religious activity is allowed in school.
Supporters of school prayer say the ban violates students' rights to free expression and that prayer could help correct problems in public education, from a lack of discipline to the upsurge in violence. But critics say it would violate the ideal of separating church and state and could create discomfort for students of minority religions.
Politicians from all sides are already staking their ground. Lawyers in Virginia are conferring with education officials. But students say no one's talking to them about it, and they're upset.
Last week, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star held a two-hour roundtable discussion with 15 teenagers on the issue of school prayer.
Their visions of religion contrast sharply: Kate Farley, a junior at Kellam High School in Virginia Beach, prays to a female goddess. Will Jenkins, a junior at Norfolk Christian High School, shares deep thoughts with Jesus Christ, whom he views as his best friend. Michael O'Konek, a junior at Cox High in Virginia Beach, doesn't believe in God at all.
But they were unanimous in their anger at being left out of the debate.
``What we are doing right now is not going to matter,'' Luma said, ``except it's going to make a damn good newspaper article and that's it. . . .We're students; they don't (care) about our rights.''
O'Konek agreed: ``If 100 students complain, they don't do anything until about 50 parents complain. It doesn't matter what you want.''
Although the teenagers held deep convictions on religion, Farley said the school prayer issue ``would not have really been brought up by students'' themselves. She thinks it's simply ``a gimmick to get people elected.''
Raegan Williams, a senior at Maury High in Norfolk, said, ``You keep asking about why this is even a question. I think I can tell you that. Because you're not going to get on the news and you're not going to get on Dan Rather unless you've got one of two very, very different opinions - either you think that prayer should be in school 100 percent or you're the kind of person who thinks that it shouldn't. And these two populations of people are the people who create these little coalitions that force it onto the news and force it to become an issue.''
Even the pollsters, whose job is to give a snapshot of public opinion, have passed teenagers by. A CBS News-Los Angeles Times poll last month found 64 percent support for permitting organized school prayer. But no one under 18 was polled.
Cheryl Arendt, manager of surveys for CBS in New York, said, ``On the school prayer issue, it would seem you would talk to them because they would be affected, but they don't vote and they don't give money.''
Plus, she said, it takes more time and money to interview teens because pollsters need to get parental permission.
Mason/Dixon Political Media Research, in Columbia, Md., recently completed a poll in Texas. Mason/Dixon also stuck to those 18 and above, vice president Del Ali said.
His reason: Lots of students aren't in at night, when pollsters usually call. ``It's very hard to get them,'' he said. by CNB