In 2009, Greencastle High School implemented the practice of allowing student council leaders to sit in during school board meetings. R.18. This practice was to encourage students to participate in government, but also the board believed it was helpful to have students available to give their views and input when matters were discussed that affected them. R.18. Student council leadership consists of President, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, and Senior Class President. R.18. Student council attend meetings once per month, which are generally held in the School District’s administrative office, but when the board recognizes student accomplishments or debating controversial topics the meetings are held in either the school’s cafeteria or …show more content…
R.20. During Mr. Pitstick’s first school board meeting, a Baptist minister thanked the Lord for the school allowing students to pray and continued to open with a Christian prayer. R.7. Mr. Pitstick stated his objections, that this was no on the agenda and wanted to revoke the decision to start meetings with prayer because he was a believer in the separation of church and state. R.7. Mr. Pitstick found it to be upsetting and offensive, however, the other council leaders wished to continue this practice, as did other board members, therefore, in the interest of freedom of expression, opening prayers continued. R.7; R.20. Mr. Pitstick was told he was allowed to bring in any religious leader or type of prayer when it was his turn by the school board. R.7. The school board president told Mr. Pitstick that if he did not want to pray, he could step out to the hallway during the prayer. R.8. On the list of responsibilities for office, it only stated that one is expected to attend the School board meetings, not for one to lead in prayer. R.6. The school board provided no formal guidelines, provided one legitimate guidelines for all who lead in prayer in public, must respect the beliefs of others. R.19. Prayer was to be conducted by the students, generally rotating between the student leaders to either invite clergy or say their own prayer.
This case study is a situation from Case Studies on Educational Administration (Kowalski, 2011). The background information is listed below.
In 1971 in Mobile County Alabama the School Board created a state statute that set aside time at the beginning of each day for silent ’meditation’ (statute 6-1-20), and in 1981 they added another statute 16-1-20.1 which set aside a minute for ‘silent prayer’ as well. In addition to these, in 1982 the Mobile County School Board enacted statute 16-1-20.2, which specified a prayer that teachers could lead ‘willing’ students in “From henceforth, any teacher or professor in any public educational institution within the State of Alabama, recognizing that the Lord God is one, at the beginning of any homeroom or any class, may pray, may lead willing students in prayer, or may lead the willing students in the following prayer to God… “ (Jaffree By and Through Jaffree v. James). Ishmael Jaffree was the father of three students, Jamael Aakki Jaffree, Makeba Green, and Chioke Saleem Jaffree, who attended a school in Mobile County Alabama. Jaffree complained that his children had been pressured into participating in religious activities by their teachers and their peers, and that he had requested that these activities stopped. When the school did nothing about Jaffree’s complaints he filed an official complaint with the Mobile County School Board through the United States District Courts. The original complaint never mentioned the three state statutes that involved school prayer. However, on June 4, 1982 Jaffree changed his complaint. He now wanted to challenge the constitutionality of statutes 16-1-20, 16-1-20.1 and 16-1-20.2, and motioned for a preliminary injunction. The argument against these state laws was that they were an infringement of the Establishment Clause within the First Amendment of the Constitution, which states that Congr...
The Greenhill Community Center was a multi-service center in Coastal City. Its main purpose was to provide human service programs for various factors throughout life with an intergenerational setting. Some of these included day care, elder programs, music classes, and afterschool programs. It was founded in 1982 and was set up in an old schoolhouse. In short, this community center could use some help.
Thomas Jefferson was a man who believed that all American citizens need to be educated so that they may exercise their rights. He saw public education as essential to a democracy. One proposal he made for public education would guarantee that all children could attend public schools for three years. However, much like other early school reforms, this proposal received much rejection and was never brought into being. Despite this rejection, Jefferson still believed that America needed public education. Eventually, he opened the University of Virginia. Even though his bills and proposals to benefit public education never saw the light of day, he still made many contributions to public education by providing the foundation on how a democracy should handle educating its
High school is a time for students to develop new interests, talents, and hobbies. As well as, prepare them with material they need for college or the workforce. Most schools, Sequoyah High School being amongst one of these schools, are lacking the resources that students need in order to pursue these academic interests. Although Sequoyah High School is a great high school for students in Monroe County, there are several issues that still need to change in order to help better the school system as a whole.
This paper deals with the stance of our schools and government on prayer in school. In this paper I will show how our government is hypocritical in its dealings of the prayer in school issue and how some of us as citizens are hypocritical as well. I will discuss the freedom of religion rights and how its interpretation affects prayer in school. Also, I will address the popular phrase, “separation of church and state”, that is often used to argue against prayer in school.
Rieff, Burt. "Conflicting Rights and Religious Liberty: The School-Prayer Controversy in Alabama, 1962-1985." Alabama Review 3(2001):163. eLibrary. Web. 31 Aug. 2011.
By having school board meetings, it helps to see what the school’s needs. This is very important for the reason that this may be the only time that a concern parent or person voice might be heard. From this meeting, it was learned that the school board members are willing to help people that have concerns. An example, of this, was when the concern Pre-K parent was worried that she heard that Pre-K has been just a daycare. However, someone from the board mentioned to her that she would personally go with the parent the next day and show her how Pre-K is running during the day. This made the parent so happy because her concerns were being met. I have learned that school board members look out for the students and that they are the number one source that community members should go to if they have a concern or a suggestion to better their children’s
Opening: We are here to represent the respondent Ishmael Jafree as his case of his children’s first amendment rights that has been violated. He has discovered his son was reciting prayers at the beginning of class daily, and because of this, his son’s first amendment rights have been violated for freedom of religion. The teachers of the district also have opposed Jafree’s son’s amendment rights.
Prohibiting School Prayer Threatens Religious Liberty. Civil Liberties. Ed. James D. Torr. -. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003.
This paper discusses how the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the United States government interact to allow each individual in a public school freedom to pray while not endorsing any religion.
This plainly states that public school teachers, principals, and boards are required to be religiously neutral. They may not promote a particular religion as being superior to any other, and may not promote religion in general as superior to a secular approach to life. They also may not promote secularism in general as superior to a religious approach to life, be antagonistic to religion in general or a particular religious belief, be antagonistic to secularism, and they must neither advance nor inhibit religion (Religion in Public).
To have prayer in the public school system is against the idea of separation of church and state. The state should not institute school prayer because the public schools are for education, not a place where religion should be taught (Gaylor, 1995, p. 1). The state should not force every child to say a prayer in the classroom because not everyone believes...
The argument over the separation of church and state has been an ongoing debate without a conclusion, and has always been a topic to speak on. Many people have strong opinions for or against the separation. While some believe that prayer in school is beneficial to the development of children and of their faith, others believe that it could completely criticize their faith by not giving the student the option to explore their beliefs. In the “Resistance to Civil Government” by Henry David Thoreau, the author is passionate about allowing people to beli...
The meeting began when the school board members entered the large group instruction room and took their seats at a panel table angled to the side of the audience. The school board consists of nine elected members from the community. The members are as follows: Paul Ridley (President), Pat Vigliotta (Vice President), Helen Cumminskey (Secretary), Carla Manion ( Asst. Secretary), Timothy Bean (Treasurer), David Feely (Board Member), Keith Hatch (Board Member), Shane Oschman (Board Member), and Joseph Troutman (Board Member). Three members of the board were missing; however because of where the seats were located I could not see who was missing. Also, the member did not introduce themselves and left before people could address them.