Biden Administration Warns School Employees Not to Allow Prayer or Other Expressions of Faith
“Teachers, school administrators, and other school employees may not encourage or discourage private prayer or other religious activity”
Progressives think it’s just fine to push LGBTQ everything in schools, but prayer is just too taboo.
FOX News reports:
Education Department warns against schools encouraging private prayer, other religious activity
The Biden administration this week updated its guidance on prayer and other religious expression in public schools, warning school employees not to encourage or endorse such activity.
“Teachers, school administrators, and other school employees may not encourage or discourage private prayer or other religious activity,” the Education Department writes in its new guidance, which adds that the U.S. Constitution permits school employees to engage in private prayer during the workday.
However, the Education Department warns, school employees can’t “compel, coerce, persuade, or encourage students to join in the employee’s prayer or other religious activity.” The guidance goes on to say that schools may take “reasonable measures” to ensure that students aren’t pressured or encouraged to join in the private prayers of their teachers or coaches.
The guidance comes at a time of year when many graduation ceremonies are taking place across the country. According to the Education Department, public school officials “may not mandate or organize prayer at graduation or select speakers for such events in a manner that favors religious speech such as prayer.”
But if a speaker’s comments are not attributable to the school, their expression can’t be restricted because of its religious content and can include prayer. In such circumstances, school officials “may choose to make appropriate, neutral disclaimers to clarify that such speech (whether religious or nonreligious) is the speaker’s and not the school’s speech.”
The Education Department includes thoughts on how public schools should address a range of religious expression other than prayer. For example, students have the right to distribute religious literature to their classmates. Schools may impose “reasonable” restrictions on its distribution but “may not target religious literature for more permissive or more restrictive regulation.”
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Comments
“…the U.S. Constitution permits school employees to engage in private prayer…”
Not entirely accurate. That’s like saying the first amendment grants people the right to free speech. The Constitution protects those who engage in private prayer from interference by the government.
What are they so afraid of?
They are secretly afraid that God exists, but you’re not supposed to say it out loud.
They can confuse their students about their ’gender identity’ and then counsel the child to hide these conversations from their parents. All of this trouble started with the attempted removal of prayer from the classroom. But as any rational person knows, as long as there are tests in school, there will be prayer in school. We need to get the federal government out of school classrooms.
As long as there are tests and pop quizzes, there will be prayer in schools.
I don’t know about that – I was reading a teacher forum earlier this week in which a teacher held her class final and at least two students sat through nearly the whole 90-minute test block without realizing that they were suppsed to be taking a test! Never mind that they were on an alternate bell schedule for finals week. Never mind that it wasn’t the first class of the day or even the first day of the week!
But then, odds are good that the kids “won’t be allowed to fail” by school administration, so no reason for them to be invested anywa..
Except Islam of course. They must always be accommodated.
That’s in the fine print.
That’s because those of other religions turn the other cheek, as it it were. No push-back. No Onward Christian soldier. No “we are the majority, you accommodate OUR needs and standards”.
Not sure the point of this or why people are getting so worked up over it. I read it a couple of times and it seems to say that prayer in school is ok as long as it’s not an official activity or organized by the school. I don’t have a problem with that. If someone wants to pray, they can and shouldn’t be encouraged or discouraged.
There was a recent Supreme Court case where a school was forced to rehire and indemnify a coach who had been fired for his practice of saying a post-game prayer with his team. I’m sure the Biden faction didn’t like this one bit.
It was turned into a Big Deal by televangelists and others who like to whip up a crowd and frighten them. The Schempp, and the Murray vs Curlett decisions stated that government (read: school district or other elected or appointed body) could not compel prayer from the students.
Murray (O’Hair) herself turned this into a bigger issue right along with the televangelist types to whip them up, and also to support her organization, American Atheists.
I went through Kindergarten through 12th grade, never heard a school prayer. I talked with a lot of my shipmates from all over the US, and very few had school prayer. It was not a universal thing. The only universal thing is pledging allegiance to a flag, and the pledge itself was written by a staunch socialist.
Unlike many countries the US has no state religion and just what comprises encouraging / discouraging mean? The Department of Education is another government agency we could do without.
“The Department of Education is another government agency we could do without.”
That’s exactly what the President said when he stated he would eliminate it in his first term. Ronnie: the ball is in your court; we are still waiting.
What kind of crap reporting is this?
The headline … “Biden Administration Warns School Employees Not to Allow Prayer or Other Expressions of Faith”
Directly below it … “Teachers, school administrators, and other school employees may not encourage or discourage private prayer or other religious activity”
Nothing in the report states that “prayer and other expressions of faith” are NOT ALLOWED … only that it’s not encouraged or discouraged.
Why the dishonesty Mike?
Prayer and expressions of faith anywhere, by anyone, is protected by the Constitution of the United States and every state Constitution. No government entity has any business trying to prevent or regulate it.