I remember that. Evil bitch. The only logical and Constitutional ruling on the issue with respect to schools was a simple one: if a child (or their parents) request not to participate in class prayer, they shouldn’t have to. When you have 29 kids out of 30 in class participating in prayer and the 1 is demanding the ENTIRE class cease and desist to adhere to his/her (or their parents) atheistic viewpoint, you’re already trampling on the others’ rights.
It’s remarkable how simple a solution to these problems are... when you DON’T have radical leftist tyrannical judicial activists rewriting the laws to suit their own personal, anti-Constitutional agendas.
When SCOTUS ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses could not be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance because they believed that doing so violated their religion, do you know what SCOTUS *didn’t* do? Prohibit the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in school.
Similarly, if a student or his parents object to a prayer to begin the school day, then such student should not be forced to participate, but he should not prevent everyone else from participating. While it is true that school prayer would not be permitted if it constituted a federal* establishment of religion, starting the school day with a prayer is no more of an establishment of religion than it is for Congress and the Supreme Court to commence their working day with a benediction.
* Please note that the First Amendment, by its own terms, does not prohibit states from establishing a religion, but prohibits Congress from enacting a statute “with respect to an establishment of religion.” Several states had established churches at the time that the U.S. Constitution was adopted, and one of the concerns of the Anti-Federalists that later found its way to the Bill of Rights was that Congress might disestablish a state church or, even worse, establish a church at the federal level that would supersede all state establishments or non-establishments. Thus, the Establishment Clause is not an individual right that should be incorporated against the states via the Fourteenth Amendment, but a clause that serves in pursuance of federalism and that would make no sense to “incorporate.” However, until SCOTUS reverses its mistake, it should at least clear up that permitting school prayer is not an establishment of religion (which would be an issue even if the Establishment Clause no longer is incorporated against the states, given that it would apply in schools in the District of Columbia, etc.).