In 1963, Edward Schempp filed a case against the Abington School District demanding that Bible readings at the beginning of the day be banned. This case was in support of Madelyn Murray O’Hair, the founder of American Atheists.

In 1992 a prayer to be said at a middle school graduation was banned when a case rose out of Rhode Island, the parents of Deborah Weisman requested a temporary restraining order to be filed against the Rabbi that had been invited to the school. The request was denied, so the Weismans continued their pursuit to ban this. Eventually the court found that the government involvement in the case created “a state-sponsored and state-directed religious exercise in a public school”. The Weismans won the case, and a graduation prayer was banned nationwide.

Finally, in 2000, two mothers of some students from the Santa Fe Independent school district in Texas, filed a suit against the school because the school allowed students to say a Christian prayer over the public address system. The mothers, one catholic and the other Mormon, testified that the school district policy “Permitted student-led, student-initiated prayer at a public high school football game” violated the establishment clause. The court ruled that this kind of practice would no longer be legal.

During the holiday season, a cross of nativity scene is not allowed in a classroom. Teachers may not wear or display anything that relates directly to a religion. Teachers may only teach about a religion.

Throughout the years the laws regarding religion in school have evolved to be more and more strict. These laws are ridiculous in many people’s eyes, they hold us back from practicing our religion in some way we may want to.

In school, we learn Science, the way the world was developed. They teach us the Big Bang theory and how we evolved from apes. They make us learn every detail about it all, they make us believe it. That is a form of religion, that is atheism. Atheists believe in the Science of the world. If we have to learn science, shouldn’t we learn all the other ways people believe the world began?

Teachers can wear shirts that promote a school, company or even politics, but they are not able to wear a shirt that relates directly to a religion. Students can wear whatever they want, but teachers are not able to because they are advisors. If a teacher and a student are of the same church, and receive the same t-shirt, the teacher should be allowed to wear it to work if the student can wear it to school. They are both expressing their religion.

Students are allowed to form religious groups and clubs such as FCA, yet they are not able to say a prayer over the public address system. Students organize such things, and students carry out such things, so why should the school stop them? The school is not asking the students to say the prayer, the students are.

Many students like to wish their fellow graduates good luck in or at the end of their speech, many like to say a prayer. The student writes their own speech, the school does not ask for the prayer to be said, the student wants to say it. So why not say it? Because it offends people. It offends people when someone tells them they may not say a prayer for their friends.

Teachers should be allowed to express their religion! A student should be allowed to say a prayer at his/her graduation! A student should be allowed to say a prayer over the intercom at a public high school sporting event! Religion should not be banned from schools like it is.