First Amendment Issues: Prayer In Public School Essay

Inclusion of entreaty in modern American school schedule has been a controversial and passing debated issue during last several decades. When tragedy of the Columbine High School in 1999 occurred, in which twelve students and one t wholly(prenominal)er died, the issue of moral preparation and role of religion in the life of public education has been brought to an entirely different level. Right after the tragedy, The Wall Street Journals column page was alive with debate over an denomination written by syndicated columnist, Peggy Noonan.Writing about the culture of death of which the two shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were a product, she observes A universe cal direct into a Christian radio station this morning and said a true thing. He said, and I am paraphrasing those kids were sick, and if a teacher had talked to them and said, listen, in that respects a way out, there corporeally is love out there that will never stop loving you, theres a real God out there and I want to be able to talk to you about himif that teacher had intervened in that way, he would have been hauled into judicature (Noonan, A19).Peggy Noonan concur with the mans observation and went on to write It occurs to me at the moment that a gun and a Bible have a few things in common. Both are small, black, have an immediate heft and are dangerousthe first to life, and the second to the culture of death (Noonan, A19). The next day Peggy Noonans article was published , a reader by the name of Bill Bailey responded to Ms. Noonans editorial. In his letter to the editor, he commented I send my children to public school to distinguish reading, writing, and arithmetic.I do non send them to school to be lectured on the virtues of believing in a personal God. Teachers have no line of work lecturing my children on the virtues of religion (Bailey, A19). One can conclude that prayer in school represent an important and pressing problem for contemporary America, not only from socio-cu ltural and public perspective but also from legal one. CASE ANALYSIS Case scenario 3 relates to the legal problems emerging from the maiden Amendment to the United States Constitution. tally to it, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the office of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (First Amendment). In this way, every establishment or preference by the Congress or any other state authority of a national, state or local religion over another is prohibited. Same legal principle applies to the preference or establishment of non-religion over religion. consort to the case scenario, Johnny, who is an atheist, objects the morning prayer held in the public high school he is attending as wellspring as a prayer at his graduation. Assuming the dispute reaches the US Supreme judicature, the decision will b e make in the favor of Johnny and his parents on the both issues of dispute morning prayer and prayer at graduation. The detailed analysis is provided below and is based on the First Amendment to the US Constitution, as well as US Supreme butterfly cases, particularly, Engel v. Vitale, Abington Township School regularise v. Schempp, Wallace v. JaffreeDuring Engel v. Vitale hearings, in a six to one vote, with two Justices removing themselves from the case, the Court declared the Regents prayer unconstitutional for violating the First Amendments establishment clause, because that prayer was composed by governmental officials as a part of governmental program to further unearthly beliefs (Engel v. Vitale, 370 US 421, 1962). Hugo Black delivered the majority opinion, which expressly rejected the districts claims that that it met constitutional standards because the prayer was denominationally neutral and had a clear opt-out policy for students.According to Black, the establishment clause is violated by the enactment of laws which establish an official religion whether those laws operate directly to coerce nonobserving individuals or not (Engel v. Vitale, 370 US 421, 1962). From this perspective, judgments that led to decisions made in Engel v. Vitale can be applied to the dispute between Johnny and his parents and guide tree stump High School, both regarding morning school prayer and prayer at graduation.By this system of logic, within the schoolhouse, school officials must protect the balance of freedom that the First Amendment allows concerning religious expression. They must protect the freedom of each student who wishes to speak out about matters of religion and protect those who prefer to say nothing at all about religion. Schools must not grass religious activities or express any opinion for or against a student who personally expresses a religious belief. Issues and the US Supreme Court logic emerged from Abington Township School District v. Schem pp case also serve in favor of Johnny and his parents.The Schempps abbreviated explained the opt-out policy gave the child a vexed choice between an impulse to obey the parents wishes and the pressure to conform to his group. If the child yields to this pressure, the result is disobedience, a loss of respect for the parent and interference with the parents right to control in matters of religion. On the other hand, if the child obeys the parent, he suffers a loss of standing in his group (Abington Township School District v. Schempp, 374 US 230, 1963). This statement reflects the situation Johnny found himself moving with his family to Tree Stump from Providence.Johnny is coming from family advocating atheistic beliefs, and that fact he moved into a very religious community should not violate his rights guaranteed by the US Constitution and make him adapt or loose standing with his group. According to the Abington brief the districts statute requires only that those who wish to d o so may listen to daily readings without discussion or comment from a grand work that possesses many values, including religious, moral, literary and historical (Abington Township School District v.Schempp, 374 US 230, 1963), They warned that a finding against the districts would set a dangerous precedent whereby there could be eliminated from the public life of this nation all those customs and traditions that evidence the religious nature and origin of our country and are now and have considerable been cherished and accepted by a vast majority of the people (Abington Township School District v. Schempp, 374 US 230, 1963).The presence of the opt-out policy sufficiently protect individuals religious rights and therefore, they saw no need for the Court to infringe upon Americas religious traditions. The position of Abington School District probably reflects the judgment of Tree Stump High School. However, as with Engel, the Supreme Court rejected the school districts arguments an d by a vote of eight to one struck down all state laws mandating Bible readings.Justice Tom Clark focused on numerous judicial opinions, including Engel, in which the Court held that the government must remain neutral toward religion. Clark argued that not only did the establishment clause require such neutrality, but so too did the free exercise clause, which recognized the right of every person to freely choose his own course with reference thereto, free of any compulsion from the state (Abington Township School District v.Schempp, 374 US 230, 1963). The US Supreme Court judgment in Abington Township School District v. Schempp favors the position of Johnny and his parents. Assuming high school graduation event was held outside the Tree Stump High School boundaries, the graduation prayer issue would not be regulated with rulings made in Abington Township School District v. Schempp and typical cases. The First Amendment protects a students right to express the faith without discrimi nation.It also forbids anyone from having a captive audience or forcing anyone to participate in any part of religious activities. Case Wallace v. Jaffree involved an Alabama state law that directed public schools to provide a moment of silence for meditation or unbidden prayer. A previous Alabama law mandated a moment of silence just for meditation, but in 1981 the legislature expanded the statute to include willing prayer. The Court determined that the clear intent of the law was to promote religion, and thus it must be invalidated.In striking down the Alabama law, the Supreme Court did not say that all moment of silence must be invalidated, but rather, the Court suggested that only those laws that either included clauses about prayers or whose legislative intent clearly called for a promotion of religion would be unconstitutional. According to the US Supreme Court ruling, the States endorsementof prayer activities at the beginning of each schoolday is not consistent with the e stablished principle that the government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion (Wallace v. Jaffree 472 US 38, 1985).By this logic, the Supreme Court decision favors once again Johnny and his parents. At the same time, Johnnys teacher offer to replace a morning school prayer with a moment of silence does not contradict neither the First Amendment to the US Constitution nor the Supreme Court rulings, as long as prayer and religion are not endorsed during it. WORKS CITED The First Amendment to the US Constitution, Available at , Accessed June 16, 2009 Noonan P. The Culture of Death, The Wall Street Journal. 22 April 1999, A19.Bailey B. Dont Blame Shooting on Absent God, The Wall Street Journal. 28 April 1999, A 19 Engel v. Vitale, 370 US 421, 1962, Available at http//caselaw. lp. findlaw. com/scripts/getcase. pl? court=US&vol=370&invol=421, Accessed June 16, 2009 Abington Township School District v. Schempp, 374 US 230, 1963, Available at http//caselaw. lp. fi ndlaw. com/scripts/getcase. pl? court=US&vol=374&invol=203, Accessed June 16, 2009 Wallace v. Jaffree 472 US 38, 1985, Available at http//caselaw. lp. findlaw. com/scripts/getcase. pl? court=US&vol=472&invol=38, Accessed June 16, 2009