Religion in Public Schools (Update 2)

AuthorIra C. Lupu
Pages2179-2180

Page 2179

The place of religion in public schools has been the subject of significant controversy in America for well over a century. A number of different issues related to this general subject have come to the fore in recent years. First, the question of publicly sponsored worship exercises in public schools has remained prominent. In 1998, the U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that, if enacted, would have legalized state-sponsored worship in public facilities, including schools. In LEE V. WEISMAN (1992), the Supreme Court ruled that the ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE prohibited officially sponsored prayer at public middle school commencement ceremonies. Although the ruling in Lee clearly extended to all public schools through and including high school, many state universities have continued to have prayer at commencements. For those who believe that the primary focus of the establishment clause is to forbid state coercion on matters of religion, the age and maturity difference between university graduates and younger students may be sufficient reason to permit state universities to do what lower schools may not. A broader view of nonestablishment, focusing on the dangers of government sponsorship of religious exercise, would suggest that state university commencement prayers are no less unconstitutional than their counterparts at high school or below.

Another issue that followed in the wake of Lee is whether schools may arrange to have students decide whether to have student-led prayers at commencement. Although lower courts have divided on this question, most have held that school officials are responsible for the content of graduation ceremonies, and that official initiation of student-led prayers at commencement is also unconstitutional. Whether student speakers acting entirely on their own at commencement may engage in worship is a more difficult question, although words of personal spiritual commitment would be a constitutionally safer course than a student-led prayer involving the entire class or audience.

The issue of student-initiated prayers is connected to a larger question about student religious expression at school. Although student worship as an official part of the program at school-sponsored public events (athletic events and assemblies as well as commencements) is constitutionally questionable, much student religious expression in public schools is private rather than...

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