SCOTUS: School officials can pray publicly in public schools

[FelineOverlord]

Link to tweet

[PortTack]

1. Then Students have the right to not participate

[NoMoreRepugs]

3. Exactly.

[Progressive Lawyer]

41. Wrong. I played football in high school. Our head coach was also a religious zealot.

There is immense pressure to "fall in line" with what the coach wants. Did he physically force us to participate in religious prayer? No, but the unspoken rule was evident..."if you want to play in the game, you pray with the team."

[NoMoreRepugs]

45. Some people lead - most follow. I hear you.

[Progressive Lawyer]

48. The law should protect everyone, even the "followers."

Just my opinion though.

[NoMoreRepugs]

50. Absolutely.

[PortTack]

52. Agree..team sports Indoctrinates to be a follower..or else!

[onecaliberal]

4. No. Trust me they don't.

[Probatim]

12. You wanna be a starter - you'll pray at the game.

[onecaliberal]

14. Exactly!

[Bettie]

21. Technically and for now, they have that right

practically, there are social pressures and usually very loudly religious teachers are also very punitive teachers when kids don't do exactly what they want them to do.

They aren't even pretending they aren't aiming for a theocracy at this point.

[Mariana]

36. They'll be penalized one way or another, if they don't participate.

You can be sure of that.

[former9thward]

47. In the case before the court the coach was praying by himself initially.

He had no interest in having the students be part of it. Eventually some of the players came and asked if they could take part in it also.

[onecaliberal]

2. Blatantly unconstitutional. Can Muslim teachers pray out loud too?

[Mossfern]

5. My thoughts exactly!

How about Satanists?

[onecaliberal]

9. Absolutely.

American Taliban.

[Buckeyeblue]

7. Just wait until that happens...

[Ocelot II]

8. I hope a case comes up involving a Muslim doing the same thing.

Then we'll see...

[VMA131Marine]

10. "Oh, wait, you mean this applies to all religions..."

the right wing evangelicals currently celebrating this decision…probably.

[onecaliberal]

11. There will be Muslim prayer coming to a classroom near you this fall. 😉

[VMA131Marine]

13. I can hear heads exploding just reading this.

[onecaliberal]

20. Oh yes, definitely.

[onecaliberal]

27. A discussion before the "activity" would definitely be in order.

[in2herbs]

42. Here's an example of what they're doing in AZ. I received it from AZ SOS.

BEGIN ARTICLE:

Despite furious opposition, in the final hours of the final day of session, the Arizona Legislature defied Arizona voters by approving largest-in-the-nation voucher expansion bill HB2853 after stripping even the most basic accountability from the bill.

Lawmakers succeeded only in adding money to the top of our education funding bucket while drilling massive holes in the bottom: the mammoth expense of expanding private school vouchers to every child in the state will siphon away all of this year's extra funding for schools and more. In the words of Rep. Lorenzo Sierra (D-19), "Why don't we just get a big toilet and flush all that money down it?"

With Reps. Michelle Udall, Joel John and Joanne Osborne flipping after years of opposition, the bill awaits Gov. Ducey's signature. Arizona now stands a hair's breadth away from first-in-the-nation universal vouchers — the longtime dream of the Goldwater Institute, DeVos' American Federation for Children, and the entire Koch machine.

Make no mistake: these legislators are bought and paid for. It is up to US to push back using every means at our disposal. Stay tuned—democracy needs all of us.

END ARTICLE

[exboyfil]

25. A private room is often made available to them

Now I guess they can put the mat down whenever there is a break in instruction.

[Beastly Boy]

29. According to SCOTUS, yes

I would encourage every Muslim school official to pray on a 50 yard line every time any students in their school are engaged in any sports activity.

[treestar]

34. +1

can atheists state that they are not praying?

[Takket]

40. Can they issue a call to prayer over the loudspeakers?

[Claustrum]

6. As long as the students aren't forced to join the prayer, I think it's fine.

Though, as we all know, one of the coaches will be taking attendance and then punish those who don't pray.

FYI, I went to a Catholic school but ended up going to a protestant church. Just because I was forced to recite bible verses in school doesn't magically turn me into a Catholic.

[onecaliberal]

17. That's fine, your family was Catholic if you were in catholic school.

What about kids who are NOT Christian? There are many religions. Why should anyone be forced into rituals that are out of line with their beliefs? Muslims don’t pray to god.

[Claustrum]

22. No. My parents aren't Catholic.

I lived in another country when I was young and they have Catholic funded public schools there. None of my family is religious.

Edit: Like I said in the previous post, I believe students should be able to opt out of these prayers without any punishments.

[onecaliberal]

26. Gotcha. The thing is, students won't be able to opt out.

I can almost guarantee it. There will also be no exception for other religion in most places either.

[Claustrum]

28. Right. I totally agree with you.

My stance is just coming from a rational human being who has critical thinking skills, not some religious nuts that are ruling in the supreme court or right wing circles.

Even if there is an opt out for student in laws, I can almost be certain that some coaches will be taking attendance and punish those who don't pray.

[onecaliberal]

30. This. Even if the kid agrees for expediency, or they want to play. It's wrong to make anyone

Participate in a religious ritual in a public place.

[Claustrum]

32. My views on religion changed a lot once I immigrated to the US when I was a teenager.

I was religious at the time but there is something just very different/wrong about churches in the US. The churches I went to outside of US were more welcoming. It was focusing on teaching love and helping people better themselves. It was a way to expand your social network and meet a lot of different people. When I came to the US, churches are different. It is imposing a viewpoint on you and isolating you from the rest of the community/global viewpoint. I left the church a few years after going in the US and never went back. It took me many years (well into my adulthood) to find out it was the influence of politics and power that made the difference in how the church community behaves in the US comparing to other countries.

Churches in the US has this moral superiority issue that I didn't find in other countries.

[onecaliberal]

35. "Moral superiority" only in upside down black is white world.

[RSherman]

15. Pagan teacher fired

I taught with a young woman who was an excellent teacher. She also described her "religion" as Pagan. She did not try to make any big deal of this in her classroom. Maybe someone sauce her Facebook? The school let her go but of course blamed it on something else. I also remember a case NYSUT had to defend about a female teacher who was a practicing witch. Also did not come up in the classroom--people just found her beliefs on FB.

[Initech]

19. And our slide towards totalitarian theocracy continues.

Fuck the Christian right!!!!

[FelineOverlord]

31. The Church of Satan tweets

Link to tweet

[BlueIdaho]

33. Tax all Churches and Church Schools.

Do it now.

[UTUSN]

38. That's *IT*!

[BruceWane]

37. What fun!

Can't wait to hear about a teacher whipping out a bag of rattlesnakes while speaking in tongues......

[roamer65]

39. So that means students have a right to pray to all other "gods", or none at all.

The Satanic Temple is gonna have a field day with this one.

[FelineOverlord]

43. West Virginia

Link to tweet

[Xoan]

44. Flunking constitutional law .

[bahboo]

46. time for some creative monkeywrenching....

[lostnfound]

49. Excellent news.

Teachers will be constitutionally allowed to share thoughts AND prayers to students as they lay dying from constitutionally protected guns in their constitutionally inadequately protected bodies.

FINALLY the GOP has done something to deal with school shootings.

[Timeflyer]

51. Can of worms

An older lady attends every local school board meeting and signs up to "speak" but in actually imposes a prayer (Christian, of course) instead of addressing agenda items. She was finally shut down. Now she try again to inject herself and her beliefs on captive audience because the problem with schools nowadays--no prayer. Conservatives want to shut down public schools anyway, and this is a wedge.