Prayer in Schools

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at both sides of the 'prayer in schools' debate. It explains that proponents feel that students should be allowed to begin each day at public school with a prayer, while opponents believe this is a violation of state and church.

From the Paper:

"The debate of prayer in school is not a new issue by any means. During the last fifty years the United States Supreme Court has issued several rulings concerning this topic. In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 1943, the Court ruled that the Board of Education could not require daily flag salute and pledge as a condition of a student's education after a group of Jehovah's Witnesses sought an injunction to stop the requirement and flag salute (Supreme pg). This ruling provided "scrupulous protection" of a student's constitutional liberties as guaranteed by the First Amendment (Supreme pg). In the 1962 Engel v. Vitale, a number of parents of students challenged the Board of Education of New Hyde Park, New York regarding the NYS Regents composed prayer at the beginning of each school day (Supreme pg). Although the state had said that it was a non-denominational prayer and no student was compelled to recite it, the Supreme Court found that the school district had violated the students" First Amendment rights "because even though the students did not have to say the prayer, the reciting of the prayer in class would put unwanted pressures on them, and moreover, found that the non-denominational prayer was too religious for the state to mandate and was therefore in violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment (Supreme pg)."

More papers on Prayer in Schools:

• Argumentative Essay # 9318 : "Advocates for Prayer in Schools"
• Argumentative Essay # 6514 : "Prayer in Schools"
• Essay # 66670 : "Prayer in School"

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