THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506080418
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
As she prepares her upcoming graduation speech at Norfolk's Maury High School, Elizabeth Nuss said she wants to talk to her senior class about success and making a difference. And for personal reasons, she has thought about offering a prayer.
``My own faith, my own belief in God has been an integral part of my life and making it through high school,'' Nuss, the school valedictorian, said Wednesday. ``In my own life in order to make a difference, my belief in God is an essential part of that.''
Nuss said she is undecided about the prayer, in part because of her concern over how her classmates will react.
What she really had not considered, though, was whether she would be breaking the law.
The American Civil Liberties Union this week mailed letters to school superintendents in Virginia threatening to sue if they endorsed organized prayer at graduation ceremonies.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1992 outlawed school-sponsored graduation prayers, ruling that they violated the constitutional separation of church and state.
Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia ACLU, said that individual students, such as Nuss, are entitled under freedom of speech rights to say a prayer of their own choosing during a graduation speech.
But Willis maintained that school officials would have to take a ``hands-off approach'' or risk violating the law against state-sponsored religious expression. That means, Willis wrote in the June 6 letter, that ``such speeches should not be edited, approved or even reviewed in advance by school officials.''
This marks the third year that the ACLU in Virginia has mailed the letters, which one Hampton Roads school official termed ``intimidating.'' But local school administrators said they will take care to avoid legal trouble.
``We will consult our attorneys and take appropriate action. It hasn't been an issue,'' said George Raiss, spokesman for Norfolk schools.
``I've talked to the principals and they've assured me that for the past three or so years, there has been no type of prayer at any graduation ceremony,'' said Joe Lowenthal, spokesman for Virginia Beach schools.
Bethanne Bradshaw, spokeswoman for Suffolk schools, said the district has no specific policy on graduation prayer but that if a ``prayer is initiated by a student during the course of a ceremony we don't interfere - that's where we start and stop.''
Willis said his letter was written in response to preliminary guidelines on religious expression the state Board of Education is considering. The proposal, drafted by the state Attorney General's Office, is intended to help public school officials navigate the legal minefield.
One section of the proposed guidelines, dealing with student-initiated prayer, is legally ``erroneous,'' Willis said, and may lead some principals to break the law.
The issue centers on a 1993 case, Gearon vs. Loudoun County School Board, in which a U.S. District Court in Alexandria banned organized prayer at graduations, including prayer requested in a vote by the graduating class.
The court ruled that the only permissible prayers at a public commencement are those offered by a student speaker and not subject to school approval or review.
As now written, the guidelines mention the Loudoun County case but point out that the issue is unsettled, because the U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on whether a graduation prayer voted on by the senior class is legal.
Several lower court rulings have been contradictory on that point. The proposed guidelines advise school officials to consult their attorneys and appropriate case law before deciding to allow class-initiated prayer.
Willis maintains that the Loudoun County ruling is the law in Virginia and should be stated clearly in the guidelines.
``The very notion that a majority of students could decide to hold a prayer violates the notion of a constitutional principle,'' Willis said.
James P. Jones, president of the state Board of Education, said Wednesday that he expects ``major changes'' to the guidelines before adoption.
``I do wish we could get the law settled,'' Jones said. ``It's annoying and aggravating to people for them not to know exactly what to do.''
For Nuss, the legal brouhaha seems ``a bit much.''
``I think whether I choose to say a prayer would be based on my own feelings about doing it,'' Nuss said. ``Just the reaction I'd get among my own peers would be more important than the legal aspect.''
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT PRAYER IN SCHOOL by CNB