School District Cancels Graduation Prayer

ROSS COUNTY, Ohio—A local school district has decided it will take a prayer out of its graduation ceremony.

It has been a long-standing tradition for Southeastern High School to invite clergy to graduation and offer a prayer.

Faced with a complaint from a high-school senior and potential legal action, Southeastern Local School District Superintendent Brian Justice told NBC 4 Wednesday afternoon the district will not include a school-sponsored prayer in next week’s graduation ceremony.

“I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want prayer,” Justice said.

Southeastern High School student Jacob Davis enlisted the help of an attorney from the group Americans United for the Separation of Church and State in asking the prayer be removed.

Justice said that after consulting with a school-district attorney, he had no choice but to follow the law and remove the traditional prayer from the ceremony.

In its place, Justice said one or two students will be selected to give opening and closing remarks, leaving open the possibility that a student could lead a prayer without direction from the school or district.

When I asked Justice why it took the district 17 years to adhere to the Supreme Court’s ruling, he said: “It’s never been brought to our attention.”

“The fact that we had prayer for 16 years and it’s against the law, not knowingly doing it, but at the same time I don’t think it hurt anybody. I think prayer is good,” Justice said.

“It’s pushing Christianity on us, and it’s just uncomfortable for everybody. I don’t think it should be there,” Jacob said Tuesday.

According to Justice, Jacob became the first to publicly question the prayer last month when he called for the prayer to be replaced with a moment of silence.

“It kind of angers me that in 1992, almost 20 years ago, it was said that any prayer at graduation, no matter the content, was unconstitutional. And it still goes on,” Jacob said Tuesday.

“To me, we weren’t violating anything because we weren’t telling you who to pray to or who not to pray to. I think it’s sad that we live in a country based on God and that’s how we established this country, and now we can’t do that,” Justice said.

Justice, a practicing Christian, who also identifies himself as a preacher, said Jacob never came to him or to Southeastern’s principal with his concerns.

But once he learned of those concerns, he had to act.

In its 1992 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said public schools cannot invite religious authority figures to deliver a prayer at graduation ceremonies. The ruling did not prohibit student-led prayer

The American Civil Liberties Union said all prayer in graduation ceremonies is unconstitutional, but Justice said his understanding of the Supreme Court’s ruling is the school cannot direct students into prayer.

As for student speakers who take it upon themselves to pray, “If a student breaks out into prayer, it’s not because it’s directed from this school,” Justice said.

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