The Bolivar school district in southwest Missouri has agreed to stop offering an official prayer during staff meetings after being contacted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).
The foundation, a nonprofit watchdog focusing on the separation of church and state, took action after reports that a local pastor recited a prayer over the loudspeaker during an August all-staff assembly. The foundation sent a letter to new superintendent Michael Methvin, who was previously the executive director of middle and K-8 schools for Springfield Public Schools.
FFRF asserts the district must remain neutral with regard to religion in its contact with all staff.
At the time, Methvin said the school district no longer would offer an official prayer during staff meetings writing to FFRC in an email, “We will not be holding prayer over future staff meetings.”
He confirmed that the prayer was held during the Welcome Back Staff Celebration meeting a week before the first day of class. He said the meeting covered a range of topics, including construction updates, resources available to teachers and the welcoming of new employees. According to the district, it is the only staff meeting where a prayer is given.
In a recent news release, the foundation quoted from a letter that Methvin wrote: “We will not be holding prayer over future staff meetings.”
“Official prayer steamrolls over the diversity of belief and nonbelief among school staff,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the foundation. According to the nonprofit watchdog, public schools may not show favoritism toward or coerce belief or participation in religion.
Legal Fellow Hirsh Joshi, an attorney licensed in Missouri, wrote: “It’s important that, even in rural Missouri, the First Amendment is respected and religion is kept out of the government’s official practice. We thank the district for cooperating and wish them and their staff nothing but the best for this school year and the ones to come.”
The group said giving only Christian teachers the benefit of prayer is unlawful preference for Christianity. The national nonprofit has 40,000 members, including 500 in Missouri.
The school district could continue to offer prayers if they used a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The court found that the town of Greece, New York could hold prayers before official meetings if they were offered by a volunteer. The town had been sued by Americans for the Separation of Church and State.
The court reversed a lower court ruling banning the prayers and in a 5-4 decision dismissed American’s United lawsuit. It ruled that the town’s practice of allowing volunteers to pray did not discriminate against any religion, and it rejected the allegation that allowing a prayer giver to include “overtly Christian references” in prayer, such as the mention of Christ, violates the First Amendment, according to Alliance Defending Freedom.
The Bolivar School District has not commented if they will revise their practice to meet the constitutional standards outlined by the High Court.
–Dwight Widaman