Is Keller school board promoting Christianity with its prayer policy? This group thinks so
(3).JPG "The Freedom From Religion Foundation is monitoring the Keller school board meetings after board members in July began to invite clergy to pray.")
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is monitoring the Keller school board meetings after board members in July began to invite clergy to pray.
Sammi Lawrence, an attorney with the Freedom From religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin, said there are concerns that the school board is excluding other faiths such as Islam and Judaism.
“We got numerous complaints from community members about it,” Lawrence said. “Members were offended by the prayers, feeling that it was inappropriate for the school board to insert prayers into the meetings. They were alienated.”
Lawrence sent a letter to the school district on July 29 that stated the Freedom From Religion Foundation believes that the school board is likely violating the Constitution by allowing a Christian prayer.
“By selecting a Christian religious leader who gave an explicitly Christian prayer, the Board’s current practice likely violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits government promotion and favoritism of one religion over another religion, in this case, Christianity, or religion generally over nonreligion,” Lawrence wrote.
Lawrence added that the practice appears to violate the board’s policy against affirmatively sponsoring the particular religious practice of prayer.
The letter also stated no board member should seek to impose his or her personal religious preferences on those at meetings.
The school board’s practice of offering a prayer at the meetings “needlessly” exposes the Keller school district to legal liability and ostracizes residents of different faiths or those who don’t practice a religion, Lawrence said.
But Timothy Davis, an attorney with the school board law firm Cantey Hanger, wrote in an Aug. 15 letter to the Freedom From Religion Foundation that the school district is not violating the Constitution by allowing prayers at meetings because it is protected by the legislative prayer exception.
“A prayer lends gravity to public business, reminds lawmakers to transcend petty differences in pursuit of a higher purpose, and expresses a common aspiration to a just and peaceful society,” Davis wrote.
His letter also highlighted several court cases, also mentioned by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
In 2017, the Birdville school district won its legal fight against the American Humanist Association and Isaiah Smith, a 2014 Birdville High School graduate who sued the district alleging that the student-led prayers at school board meetings made him feeel uncomfortable. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, leaving a 5th Circuit appeals court ruling in place. That ruling said said the Birdville school district was not violating the Constitution because the prayers were under the legislative exception.
“The Board appreciates your interest in our District (all the way from Wisconsin, even!) but intends to proceed with its practice of opening its meetings with prayer,” Davis wrote.
Other governmental entities, such as the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, also have prayers during the meeting under the legislative exception rule.
Asked about the prayers and concerns that non-Christians believe they are excluded, board member Bev Dixon declined to comment, stating that the board president or communications office handles media inquiries.
Board president Charles Randklev did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The Keller school district said in an email to the Star-Telegram that board members began praying on July 25. Meeting agendas listed prayers on Aug. 2, Aug. 22 and Sept. 26.
“No vote was taken, and no policy was adopted to add prayer to the agenda,” the email stated.
Previously, the school board had a moment of silence if a staff member, student or “a notable community member died,” according to the email.
The district also said that clergy who attended a local National Day of Prayer breakfast this year were invited to pray at the meetings.
Community concerns
Allison Perilman, a senior at Keller High School who is Jewish, said she is worried other religions haven’t been represented at board meetings.
She said she will speak about board members allowing prayers at thier Oct. 24 meeting.
She said there was no mention of the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah during the prayer at the Sept. 26 meeting. The holiday was from Sept. 25-27.
Perilman said she has been mistreated and ridiculed by students because she is Jewish.
“That makes me feel unwelcome in that setting,” she said.
Perilman described how other students joked about the Holocaust, and when she was 11, a classmate shouted German commands at her.
The Texas Association of School boards encourages school districts to offer a moment of silence as a time of reflection because of conflicting court rulings over praying and the possibility of litigation.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation says it isn’t considering legal action at this time, but will continue to monitor the Keller board meetings.