Free Republic

Teachers and administrators in Tangipahoa Parish continue to violate a court-imposed school prayer ban, according to the ACLU, which Wednesday asked a federal judge to send them to jail. For the fourth time in less than two months, the ACLU has formally notified the judge that school officials are flouting the prayer ban, imposed to settle a lawsuit the civil liberties group filed for a parent in 2003. This time, the group says, an elementary school teacher in Tangipahoa Parish repeatedly held prayers in her fourth grade class, encouraged students to bring their Bibles to school, held Bible study classes...

NEW ORLEANS—The ACLU has filed a motion for criminal contempt today against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for defying an agreed on court order banning official prayer at athletic events. An individual identified as Shane Tycer delivered a pre-game prayer over the PA system on March 24 at a baseball game between Loranger High School and Sumner High School. This marks the second contempt motion filed against the school board within the past two weeks for transgressions of injunctions related to the original lawsuit. “The defendant school board and its superintendent cannot get away with a shell game that mocks...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A pre-game prayer before a high-school baseball game last month violated a court order against official prayer at Tangipahoa Parish public schools' athletic events, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday. The ACLU asked U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan to hold the parish school board in contempt because someone said a prayer over the public address system March 24, before Loranger High played Sumner High. "This marks the second contempt motion filed against the school board within the past two weeks for transgressions of injunctions related to the original lawsuit," the ACLU said in a news...