When Praying at Graduation, Silence is Golden

When Praying at Graduation, Silence is Golden

Monday, 25 May 2009 06:21 Staff

Commentary
Inside the First Amendment

By Charles C. Haynes
First Amendment Center senior scholar

During a recent trip to Tulsa, Okla., I asked a roomful of high school seniors if they wanted prayer at their graduation. Most said yes, with the notable exception of the student who would actually speak at the ceremony — the class valedictorian.

“I’m a Hindu,” she said, “and I just don’t think it would be right for me to impose my prayers on other people at a school event that’s supposed to be for everybody.”

To borrow an image from religious-liberty advocate Roger Williams, this is one young American who comes to the helm remembering what it’s like to be in the hatches. After years of listening to prayers of the majority faith, she went on to explain, she wasn’t going to use her moment at the podium to turn the tables.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that under certain conditions this Tulsa valedictorian could legally offer Hindu prayers if she wanted to do so. Although the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 in Lee v. Weisman that school-sponsored graduation prayers are unconstitutional, the law is still somewhat unsettled on where to draw the First Amendment line on student religious expression at graduation.

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