12 Washington State High School Students Suspended for Public Prayer Group

LifeSiteNews.com ^ | March6, 2007 | Gudrun Schultz

[csistrueblue]

12 Washington State High School Students Suspended for Public Prayer Group

By Gudrun Schultz

VANCOUVER, Washington, March 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A number of students who formed an interdenominational prayer group at a Washington state high school were expelled by the administration last week over their refusal to hold a morning prayer session in a closed room, The Columbian reported March 2.

Twelve students at Heritage High School in Vancouver, WA, were suspended last Friday after continuing to meet for morning prayer in the commons area of the school, despite a faculty order that they stop causing physical "disruption" to student traffic with public prayer.

To express concerns, contact:

Heritage High School 7825 NE 130th Avenue, Vancouver, WA 98682

Phone: (360) 604-3400

Principal: Anne Sosky asosky@egreen.wednet.edu

[Froufrou]

I agree!

[Halgr]

Its a sad commentary on our culture.....the dark side uses political correctness against the good guys.

I hope that school district has a sizable legal fees budget.

[Stone Mountain]

That passage is generally interpreted to mean that one should not engage in prayer with the intent of impressing others

It seems to me that's exactly what they are doing. "The prayer circle’s purpose is visibility..."

[red irish]

But how God centered is this country? I believe,personal opinion,people who call themselves Christians are not at all Christians. For the most part! When millions of children killed every day through abortion,even outside the womb,where is the screaming outcry for the deaths of these children. I mean we are talking about millions of children. And then of course we have the homosexual agenda that is thriving quite well. How many Christian churches today are now condoning both of these issues, I mean sins, as no big deal! Little by little Christians are being persecuted for a more ecumenical faith of whatever.And the result abortion and homosexuals getting married and how many people take sacred vows to marry over and over.As far as Muslims praying and Christians praying in the common areas,would they be treated the same? No because this country is more about putting Christians in the back of the room. Why I think is because they are afraid of the Muslims either through lawsuits or terror attacks or they do not like the truth that Jesus was about.When the apostles went out to preach look what happened to them. I am afraid that one day we too will be in that same situation. Maybe not lions but hey we are getting pretty good at the whole mercy killing thing.lol In other words people may think little things effecting the faith of Christians is no big deal but they are.Little by little things happen over time and people get used to them and then we ask how did this happen.

[Stone Mountain]

No and you probably won't, wonder why that is? Go check out a few schools Stone, there are several shortcomings in your understanding of the public school process.

I see - you just assume facts that aren't in the record. Well, it's easy to argue based on that. Do you not believe that if other groups were allowed to meet there, that those students wouldn't have mentioned it? Or that Life Site News wouldn't have mentioned it?

[Stone Mountain]

We don't know that that has been the policy in the past; though I'm sure administrators are now prohibiting other groups from meeting there..

You don't think any of the 12 students would have mentioned it if it was? It's not like they were shy about talking about other issues.

[John123]

I would think punishment. It shows up in their school records and may effect their choices for colleges...

[Stone Mountain]

hmmm.... maybe not... : )

[red irish]

Of course there was public preaching,look at John the Baptist.And if I remember right Jesus was quite fond of him and did not say anything negative of he did. Of course he lost his head! And what about all the multitudes Jesus preached to.

[Old Professer]

The tragedy of the commons lies not so much in the loss of the commons but in its possession.

[VaBthang4]

Why FReep'em. The Kids were wrong. If their intent was to pray...they had the opportunity to do so.

It appears that their intent was vain.

[GovernmentShrinker]

But the visibility, in this case, is aimed at making participation easier for shy kids who might hesitate to go to an assigned room to participate in a formal club activity. Doing this as an informal activity in a public place makes it easy for the hesitant to "sort of" participate, tentatively, hanging around the edges briefly, etc. It's often difficult for kids to join a new peer group in high school, even though many want to. Many fear rejection and some have actually been rejected when they tried. In a big public high school, many students who've been part of the mainstream school culture may imagine religious students to be very judgmental, and imagine that going to a formal group meeting would involve being lectured about sex, clothing, etc. or being pressured to participate in confessional type "sharing" discussions, or to declare religious commitment in a specific way.

I'm just not convinced that a dozen or even 2-3 dozen students standing around for a few minutes before school starts, in what must be the massive cafeteria of a 2200 student school, are being disruptive in any way, to "traffic" or anything else. And if they're not being disruptive, there's no need to push them into an assigned room. I'm just picturing the ordinary scenes around a large public high school shortly before classes begin, and the huge number of kids invariably roaming or hanging around in public areas, and I just can't picture how this group could be disruptive unless they were parked smack in the middle of a hallway and refusing to let people by, or praying at the top of their lungs to drown out normal conversation.

[Zeroisanumber]

We had one of these at my high school. Totally voluntary and not faculty organized. As an Atheist, I don't see what this principal's problem is.

[voltaires_zit]

> As an Atheist, I don't see what this principal's problem is.

Try reading post #71, especially the last bit quoted below:

“They’re in the middle of a very busy area, grouped together, so others couldn’t get around,” he said. “Other kids cannot avoid it. That’s not appropriate, whether they’re praying or whatever they’re doing.”

[gcruse]

Didn't Jesus say something about praying out of doors?

[TheBattman]

Actually, they were denied ANY meeting location on campus. In this case, the students (who are allowed in the cafeteria before school anyway) decided to sit together and pray - I guess that was offensive to the Satanist student who turned them in...

---

Students at one Washington State public school suspended for praying
Allie Martin OneNewsNow.comMarch 7, 2007
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/03/students_at_one_washington_sta.php

Mathew D. Staver, founder of the pro-family legal group Liberty Counsel, says a lawsuit is possible against officials at a Washington State high school that suspended 12 Russian immigrant students because they gathered to pray before school.

Several weeks ago, administrators at Heritage High School in Vancouver, Washington, denied a request from Christian students to start a prayer club. The students, who were not allowed to meet for prayer in a private room, instead gathered before school in the cafeteria to pray; however, they were reported by a student who claims to be a Satanist.

The school's vice principal then told the Christian students they could not pray in the cafeteria and would have to go outside. The Christian students refused and were suspended, some for three days and others for ten days. Staver says the students' constitutional rights were violated.

"It's absolutely outrageous that the school allowed one Satanist student to exercise a heckler's veto over the other students' speech," the Liberty Counsel spokesman observes. "The situation underscores the ignorance of the school officials, and what Liberty Counsel has now done is issued a demand letter, demanding immediate action by the school to allow these students to be reinstated."

Staver notes that most of the students suspended were Russian immigrants who "came to America assuming that America was the land of the free and the home of the brave -- assuming that they would have religious liberty." But instead they were greeted "with religious persecution and discrimination; and so this situation needs to be remedied immediately," he asserts.

Liberty Counsel is providing legal assistance to the students who were suspended. Staver says a lawsuit will be filed this week if school officials do not reverse their decision.

[TheBattman]

But there is the rub - who and what decides what "obstruct" means. In this case, from what I have heard and read, there was no obstruction. The praying students were just in a public location in the cafeteria which is perfectly acceptable at that school. The problem is that they chose to pray. Apparently, that is the crime of "obstructing" traffic - they were VISIBLE.

[TheBattman]

Some pretty conflicting reports in this case going around - one says they were asked to use a "closed" room (which in most schools would be a no-no unless they had a faculty adviser. But this being a prayer group, I don't know if that would be allowed...

While other reports say that they had REQUESTED a room to use and were denied the use of a room.

Something is wrong - and as my distrust of public schools is rather strong (and I teach at a public school!), I tend to not trust the administration in this case.