Texas district settles suit over prayer at graduation
Students in the Round Rock Independent School District are left out of a major vote after a federal judge prohibited the district from letting students decide on whether to have prayer at graduation. The ruling is an agreement reached by the district and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Washington-based group sued Round Rick ISD on behalf of six parents and a former student. The judgment forbids the district from holding a student vote to have prayer at commencement ceremonies.
Source: Austin News 8, 3/9/08, By Staff
[Editor’s Note: The judge’s opinion, issued in the form of the agreed judgment pursuant to settlement below, prohibits the inclusion of prayer or other religious communication at graduation unless: (1) the U.S. Supreme Court or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (LA, MS, TX) specifically allows school districts to hold student elections or votes on whether prayer, etc. should be included; (2) the Supreme Court or the Fifth Circuit overrules the Supreme Court’s decision disallowing football game prayer in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000), or holds that the decision is limited to school sporting events only; (3) Texas law allows such elections or votes and the district obtains the court’s permission to be relieved from this judgment; or (4) the district otherwise obtains the court’s permission to be relieved from the judgment. A recently adopted Texas statute, described at the second link, requires every school district, among other things, to (1) adopt a policy establishing a “limited public forum” at all school events at which student is to speak and prohibiting restrictions based on religious content; (2) “provide a method, based on neutral criteria, for the selection of student speakers at school events and graduation ceremonies”; and (3) at all graduation ceremonies to “state, in writing, orally, or both, that the student's speech does not reflect the endorsement, sponsorship, position, or expression of the district.]
Agreed judgment in Does1-7 v. Round Rock Indep. Sch. Dist
NSBA School Law pages on Texas statute