Prayer_In_Public_Schools

Prayer In Public Schools Prayer in Public Schools For over the past thirty years there has been a tremendous amount of controversy surrounding the issue of prayer in public school systems. The controversy lays not so much around students praying individually but whether or not school officials should be allowed to lead prayer. Prayer and religion can have a great impact on students but at the same time interfere with an individual’s First Amendment rights. Many politicians and groups from President Clinton to American Civil liberties Union have expressed their opinions surrounding this issue. Lawmakers have gone to great lengths to inform school systems of the laws surrounding school prayer in order to avoid any more conflict that may occur as a result of difference in opinion. This controversy began back in 1962 after the Engel v. Vitale case, that state sponsored school prayer would be banned in public school systems. (ACLU: Constitutional Amendment...par. 19) Since this ruling, the rules regarding school prayer have been clarified. The First Amendment allows students to freely express themselves religiously but also separates it from government-sponsored religion. (Riley, par. 5) Students have the right to pray while not school, prayer, students, par, religious, schools, religion, public, right, amendment, state, riley, pray, first, participate, officials, help, aclu, think, teachers, states, expression, student, rights, must, mandatory, group, establishment, clause, church, been, allows, allowed, activity, whether