notice the first ammendemrts say that COnfgress cannot prohibit the "free exercise thereof". talking about religion.

ah! a zombie thread!

"But I don't think the government has the right to have a morning pray said in schools."

The government doesnt want to make it a requirement in schools to have a prayer said every morning. They just want to make it where if students want to pray, they can and not get punished for it.

If you want to pray during school that's good for you and you should feel free to. There's a girl in two of my classes that says the Hail Mary and hold Rosary beads before every test. But I don't think the government has the right to have a morning pray said in schools. 1. Seperation of church and state 2.Hello! We have tons of religions here, most of which have different prays etc.

It's just not fair to force pray upon anyone.

"However, I think requiring prayer to be recited over the intercom would be going to far."


I honestly dont really have a side I'm leaning to on this topic. (Like I've said before) I go to primarily all-Christian school, and I've never had to think about getting in trouble for praying. However, when they say "should prayer be allowed in school?" theyre not saying "are we going to say it over the intercom?". Allowing prayer in school is just saying that you cant get in trouble for praying (in some schools you can) and that its okay for say a Muslim girl to lay down in the middle of the hallway and pray and not get in trouble. What does everybody else think?

You should be allowed to pray during school, but they shouldn't force you to.

I really don't see a need to have paryer at all during school time. If your religion requires you to pray everyday or you feel you must do it after school or before. I don't know of any religiont hat says that you must pray during school.

Separation of church and state. If you decide to go to a religious school, pray. Public schools, on the other hand, is just not the place for prayer. If students want to pray, they should go to their respective services/houses of worship.

The government cannot regulate prayer in educational institutions; however, it has the power to sanction and endorse school-wide prayer, though that would create a miasma of discrepancies on the state and federal levels.

If you want to pray, go ahead. Close your eyes, clasp your hands, sway back and forth: whatever works for you. You are simply asked to not disrupt your environment to - for example – pray vocally before a test in hopes that your God/Goddess will grant you some type of divine intervention.

Jesus saves, but apprently he was never too bright in the logistics department.

quote:

I agree that they shouldn't take time out of class.

So they can't take time out of class, do it during class (because then it would be exploited during trig and physics,) so they would do it before and/or after, as well as during lunch. Bringing in a chaplain is a definate NO, so where are we? bible clubs and flag pole meetings, both of which we have now, both of which I (and we) accept as perfectly legit. (I doubt there would be any want to do it between periods and lunch.) So we are back to where we started, the status quo.

So what is the problem again?

I think Red means that any prayer in school goes against separation of church and state. But I'm not sure. Interestingly enough, Red weren't you one of the people who claimed that separation of church and state doesn't exist?

To Northstar: True. I suppose that would be the most debatable topic on this thread. I agree that they shouldn't take time out of class.
To RedRepublican: Wait... what's against the seperation of church and state?

quote:

Originally posted by Jugglerofdooom:
It seems that almost everyone is in agreement on the topic, however.
Almost everyone agrees that students should be allowed to but not forced to pray whenever the heck they want. And I support that whole heartedly. The freedom to choose.

I understand that, but there is a twitch. They cannot interupt class to do it, and they cannot take out time for kids to pray, becuase we then get beck to the origional issue, so the entire issue is void.

it still goes against the separation of church and state.

It seems that almost everyone is in agreement on the topic, however.
Almost everyone agrees that students should be allowed to but not forced to pray whenever the heck they want. And I support that whole heartedly. The freedom to choose.

Posted by RedRepublican:

quote:

the debate is over whether or not kids are allowed to pray not "should the kids be forced to pray?"

Read BlueDemocrat's opening post. It includes both. It starts with "This year the Supreme Court will decide if the power to require public schools to hold prayer in the morning lies with the state or the fed"
Then yes, it says, "should public schools be allowed to hold prayer sessions?" but it isn't restricted to that. It continues with "I think requiring prayer to be recited over the intercom would be going to far."
Now, I know my quoting almost the entire post may be going a bit far, but the whole issue does need to be addressed.

Yeah, I come from a biased, liberal school. We even have a Bible Club. I've prayed. Other's pray. It's no big deal.

I don't get why she was suspended cause I can see the prayer v. no prayer falling under freedom of speech as well.

As long as she was doing it and not harming anyone, I think suspension is ridiculous.

the schools in my area don't allow it at all. my friend was suspended because the teacher (an athiest) saw her praying

quote:

didn't say that the schools should require the students to pray but i think the students should be allowed to pray if they want

And they already are. If you wanna go ahead and pray, or if a little group of people wanna pray quietly together, as long as you aren't disrupting anyone, I doubt anyone will care that much.

I sure as heck wouldn't.