School prayer in the United States
The Constitutional basis for this prohibition is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which requires that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...The first part of the amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion") is known as the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, while the second part ("or prohibiting the free exercise thereof") is known as the Free Exercise Clause.
Although each of these clauses originally applied only to the central US government, the Fourteenth Amendment extended the scope of the entire First Amendment to all levels of government, including the state and local levels,[1] thus compelling states and their public schools to adopt an equally detached approach to religion in schools.
"[2] In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, it was common practice for public schools to open with an oral prayer or Bible reading.
Southern Baptists and fundamentalists in the late 20th century began aggressively setting up their own schools, where religion was practiced but no government aid was used.
Likewise, homeschooling in the late 20th century represented a reaction against compulsory schooling that did not promote religious ideals.
A more significant case had reached the Supreme Court one year prior, suddenly changing the legal climate for school prayer.
The prayer was relatively short: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.
[7] Seven years later, Steven I. Engel, a Jew, was upset to see his son's hands clasped and his head bowed in prayer.
Engel, a founding member of the New York Civil Liberties Union, brought action along with Daniel Lichtenstein, Monroe Lerner, Lenore Lyons, and Lawrence Roth, all parents of children in the Long Island, New York public school system, against Union Free School District No.
[12][13] With the success of the lawsuits, the intent of the Constitution with regard to the relationship between church and state again came under critical scrutiny and has remained there to this day.
The Lemon test states that, in order to be constitutional under the Establishment Clause, any practice sponsored within state-run schools (or other public state-sponsored activities) must adhere to the following three criteria:[15] In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled in Good News Club v. Milford Central School that Child Evangelism Fellowship could use public-school facilities to facilitate Bible clubs.
In a nationally representative sample of 1,800 teens (ages 13–17), 12 percent from the South region of the United States say that they have had a teacher lead their class in prayer.
It ruled in favor of the Washington State school district, saying that Kennedy was acting as a public official and not as a private citizen when he was praying in front of students and parents.
Despite their attempts to present a clear stance on school-sponsored religious activity, Engel, Abington, and the cases for which these serve as precedent are cited by some proponents of school prayer as evidence of a contradiction between the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses.
[32] Studies show that these numbers have been steadily dropping since 2001, but the majority of Americans continue to support having religion in the education system.
The Supreme Court of the United States decision in Wallace v. Jaffree (1984) held that a moment of silence in schools for the purpose of individual prayer or meditation constituted a valid application of the Free Exercise Clause, while a moment of silence for the clear intended purpose of a state-approved devotional activity constituted a violation of the Establishment Clause.
While current data about the prevalence of this topic is hard to come by, a survey in 2015 headed by a psychologist from New York, Bethany Butzer, found that almost four dozen yoga programs had spread across the United States to 940 schools.
Butzer concluded that these programs were safe and fine to implement and that they would continue to grow in popularity as the years passed.
"[4] The district was compelled to significantly edit their program and included new changes such as "removing the “namaste” greeting and the coloring-book exercises involving mandalas.
