Federal Judge Partially Upholds Christian Prayer at Graduation Event

A federal judge has stated that student-led prayer at graduation events is Constitutional after an attempt by a group that targets references to religion in public events to have all prayer banned.

The American Humanist Association (AHA) filed a complaint against the Greenville South Carolina School District, saying that they needed to remove an elementary school “graduation” ceremony from a chapel at North Greenville University and also prohibit prayers at the event.

U.S. District Court Judge George Ross Anderson, who first heard the case, said the AHA was “making a mountain out of a molehill.”  On Monday, U.S. District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks ruled that the school-sponsored prayer could not be allowed by the School District but that any student-led prayer in permissible by the Constitution.

The school district informed the court they removed an invocation from the ceremony but allowed a student prayer.

The AHA was not happy that prayer was allowed to continue in a public space and that children were exposed to prayer.

“It’s a sad day when the courts allow students to be subjected to Christian prayers during what should be a secular graduation ceremony,” executive director Roy Speckhardt said in a statement on Tuesday. “These prayers exclude kids and families of minority faiths and no faith.”

The group plans to appeal to have all prayer removed from the event.