Indian River prayer violates Constitution
By praying out loud before every meeting to a particular religious figure they are definitely violating the First Amendment establishment clause.
At every meeting of the Indian River School Board dating back to its formation in 1969, members paused at the start to pray.
And almost always, the prayer is not a moment of silent meditation but usually is offered out loud by a member of the school board, who unfailingly will evoke the name of Jesus Christ in front of an audience of parents, students and other members of the public.
And each time, according to a ruling handed down Friday by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, the school board was violating the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiff in the case — who is identified only as Jane Doe because of her fears about reprisals directed against her children — said she at first felt it must have been ignorance on the part of the school board. She didn’t think they realized the hurt it caused people of other faiths, like herself and her children, when they heard such a prayer at a school board meeting.
But when the specifically Christian prayers continued, “I felt it was really being used wrongly, that there was not a very religious spirit behind the prayer,” Doe said Friday. She said she felt it was being used to isolate and perhaps intimidate.