An Oklahoma school district has shut down morning prayers being broadcasted over the PA system at an elementary school after receiving criticism from parents.
Last month, parents discovered that Prague Elementary School had been sending students to Bible study and saying morning prayer over the school’s PA system.
An anonymous parent told KFOR News that some students had been ‘getting picked on or bullied’ because they were not participating in the school-sanctioned religious activities.
“I went to the principal and told her that what they are doing is illegal,” said the parent. “But they told me that because it is students technically leading it, it isn’t.”
Prague Public School District eventually shut down the morning prayers and Bible study due to the backlash from parents. They released a statement saying the district “is dedicated to following the law and protecting the rights of every student to freely exercise his or her religion.”
However, not everyone is happy with the decision. State Superintendent Ryan Walters posted a video on X where he vowed to “take a stand for our students’ freedom of religion, their freedom to express their religious beliefs.”
Jeremy Telman, a law professor at Oklahoma City University, said that Walters was ‘100% incorrect’ in claiming that any students’ freedom to express their religious belief was under attack ‘because the school isn’t allowing prayers over the intercom.’
“In fact, the rights of the other students were violated when the school was broadcasting those prayers,” Telman explained to KFOR News.
According to the Oklahoman, the Freedom From Religion Foundation called for Walters’ resignation.
People of faith will never be bullied. pic.twitter.com/ury7dSAY08
— Superintendent Ryan Walters (@RyanWaltersSupt) November 28, 2023
Discover more from Next Gen News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
ALL religions are evil foreign psychotic mass murderous mental illness and should never be forced on innocent children! Anyone doing so should get life in prison!
The state should not push any religions or atheist.
The solution we had a few years back was very elegant. Have a few minutes of silence and if people like to pray or meditate or whatever let them do it.
Why do Christians keep pushing the rest of us to really dislike them by them trying to force their dogma on the rest of us?….you want to believe in fairy tales, go right ahead and leave the rest of us alone…..
Moment of silence doesn’t work as mentally ill religic teachers will favor students seen doing what they want done…
BTW, the evil religions fuel all the mass murdering, religious terrorism, and unneeded wars…
If children want to pray or have Bible study they have lots of time before and after school.