In Louisiana, a School Prayer Showdown

PONCHATOULA, La., June 9, 2005 — -- In the Tangipahoa Parish School District near Baton Rouge, people are more passionate than ever about their desire to pray wherever and whenever they choose, although the courts have repeatedly told them to stop.

"Prayer should be kept in school," said resident Cora Monson. "The Bible should not be kept out."

"We're a parish that's really unified with God and with prayer," said resident Bryan Strickland, "and we believe that's the foundation of our moral values."

The district's school board regularly held prayers before meetings, but one anonymous parent got the Louisiana branch of the American Civil Liberties Union to sue the school district to stop. The school district lost that decision, but is appealing to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

It's just the latest battle in a long-running war between conservative Christians and those who see public schools as places that should remain secular.

"They've tried to promote creationism in the classroom. They had a preacher coming in, giving away free pizza at lunchtime, preaching and proselytizing students. And then we've had prayers at football games after the Supreme Court ruled against that," said Joe Cook, executive director of ACLU of Louisiana.In February, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan ordered the school district to cease prayer at school-sponsored events, but according to the ACLU, the school district has violated that order at least four times since then: when a teacher's aide led the Lord's Prayer for students during a school board meeting; when a man prayed over the public address system before a baseball game between two parish schools; and when a student at Loranger High School student recited a prayer to Jesus that a teacher had given him at the school's end-of-the-year banquet.

Cindy Benitez, public information officer for the school district, said, "We have conducted internal investigations on two of those matters." As to what the conclusions were, Benitzez said, "I do not have that information."

In the fourth instance, the ACLU presented the case of Cynthia Thompson -- a former student-teacher in the school district -- who said Pam Sullivan, a fourth-grade teacher at D.C. Reeves Elementary School, forced her students to pray to Jesus every day before lunch.