http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metr ... rayer.html

By Helen Gao
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

July 2, 2007

A San Diego public school has become part of a national debate over religion in schools ever since a substitute teacher publicly condemned an Arabic language program that gives Muslim students time for prayer during school hours.
Carver Elementary in Oak Park added Arabic to its curriculum in September when it suddenly absorbed more than 100 students from a defunct charter school that had served mostly Somali Muslims.

After subbing at Carver, the teacher claimed that religious indoctrination was taking place and said that a school aide had led Muslim students in prayer.

An investigation by the San Diego Unified School District failed to substantiate the allegations. But critics continue to assail Carver for providing a 15-minute break in the classroom each afternoon to accommodate Muslim students who wish to pray. (Those who don't pray can read or write during that non-instructional time.)

Some say the arrangement at Carver constitutes special treatment for a specific religion that is not extended to other faiths. Others believe it crosses the line into endorsement of religion.

Supporters of Carver say such an accommodation is legal, if not mandatory, under the law. They note the district and others have been sued for not accommodating religious needs on the same level as non-religious needs, such as a medical appointment.

Islam requires its adherents to pray at prescribed times, one of which falls during the school day.

While some parents say they care more about their children's education than a debate about religious freedom, the allegations – made at a school board meeting in April – have made Carver the subject of heated discussions on conservative talk radio. District officials have been besieged by letters and phone calls, some laced with invective.

The issue has drawn the attention of national groups concerned about civil rights and religious liberty. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, Anti-Defamation League, American Civil Liberties Union and the Pacific Justice Institute are some of the groups monitoring developments in California's second-largest school district.

Among the critics is Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel with the nonprofit, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center devoted to “defending the religious freedom of Christians.”



AdvertisementHe said he's “against double standards being used,” such as when there is a specific period for Muslim students to pray and not a similar arrangement for Christians.
Carver's supporters noted that Christianity and other religions, unlike Islam, do not require their followers to pray at specific times that fall within school hours, when children by law must be in school. Amid the controversy, the district is studying alternatives to the break to accommodate student prayer.

Capitalizing on what it considers a precedent-setting opportunity created by the Carver situation, the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute has offered to help craft a districtwide “Daily Prayer Time Policy.”

In a letter, the religious-rights organization urged the district to broaden its accommodations to Christians and Jews by setting aside separate classrooms for daily prayer and to permit rabbis, priests and other religious figures to lead children in worship on campuses.

A lawyer representing the district said those ideas would violate the Constitution's prohibition against government establishment of religion.

The uproar over Carver comes as schools across the country grapple with how to accommodate growing Muslim populations. In recent weeks, the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus has been divided over using student fees to install foot-washing stations on campus to make it easier for Muslim students to cleanse themselves before prayer.

“These things are surfacing more and more in many places where large communities of Muslims are coming in and trying to say this is our right,” said Antoine Mefleh, a non-Muslim who is an Arabic language instructor with the Minneapolis public schools.

His school allows Muslim students to organize an hour of prayer on Fridays – Muslims typically have Friday congregational prayers – and make up class work they miss as a result. During the rest of the week, students pray during lunch or recess.

The San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations supports the Carver program.

“Our country is transforming demographically, religiously,” said Edgar Hopida, the chapter's public relations director. “Our country has to now accommodate things that are not traditionally accounted for before.”

Carol Clipper, who is the guardian of two grandchildren enrolled in the school's Arabic program, said she believes students should be “given the freedom” to pray. Clipper is Christian, and her grandchildren are being raised in both Islam and Christianity.

“I take them to the mosque and they go to church with me,” she said.

Another parent, Tony Peregrino, whose son is not in the Arabic program, said he's OK with the Muslim students praying. What he cares about, he said, is that teachers are doing their job, and his son's education is not affected.

Courts have ruled on a series of school prayer cases over the past half-century, but legal scholars say a lack of clarity remains.

“This is an area where the law is notoriously erratic,” said Steven Smith, a constitutional law professor at the University of San Diego.

Voluntary prayers by students are protected private speech, the courts have said. That means students can say grace before a meal and have Bible study clubs on campus, and several San Diego schools do. Public school employees, however, cannot lead children in prayer on campus.

Students also can be excused for religious holidays, such as Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, and Good Friday during Holy Week.

The federal Equal Access Act requires that extracurricular school clubs, religious and non-religious, be treated equally.

San Diego Unified was sued in 1993 when it denied a University City High School student's request to hold lunchtime Bible fellowship. The court found the district discriminated against religion, because it allowed secular clubs to meet during lunch.

Brent North, a lawyer retained by the district to address concerns related to the Carver program, said the district learned from the University City High case to be “careful about restricting students' right to their own private religious expression, including when it's on campus.”

The district cites Department of Education guidelines on prayer:

“Where school officials have a practice of excusing students from class on the basis of parents' requests for accommodation of non-religious needs, religiously motivated requests for excusal may not be accorded less favorable treatment.”

The midday prayer for Muslims here generally falls between 1 and 2 p.m., North said, and that is before the school day ends.

“What is unique about this request is the specificity of the religious requirement that a prayer be offered at a certain time on the clock,” he said.

North went on to say, “The district's legal obligation in response to a request that a prayer must be performed at a particular time is to treat that request the same as it would treat a student's request to receive an insulin shot at a particular time.”

Mefleh, the Minneapolis Arabic instructor, said he allows his Muslim students to pray at the end of class during the monthlong observance of Ramadan, Islam's holiest period.

“Some accommodation has to come from both sides,” he said. “I just tell them prayer is good. Class is good, too. Your time is precious. You have to come to an agreement with them without making a big fuss. If you want to pray, I understand, but I don't want to interrupt the class too much.”

Why do I get the feeling that at some point this is going to turn into a debate about charter schools?

save the prayer for the break time.

They aren't forcing anyone to pray, rather accomadating those who wish to do so.

The sad part of this is that it isn't those who are areligious who are criticizing this, but rather those who claim to be Christians, who can't allow for a second some sort of perceived "preference" be given to a different religious group. Sad, really.

I don't have a problem with kids praying in school.

I DO have a problem with teachers having kids pray in the classroom, when they are supposed to be teaching students, in a public school.

Make no mistake about it, if this was happening in Tennessee with a bunch of Christians, this would be a national shitstorm.

Imagine people being upset because they are treated differently based solely on their religion. Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy. Next thing you'll be telling me is people get upset when treated differently based on race. What is this world coming to? What is with these uppity Christians?

Children should be able to be excused from class by parents for just about any reason. I don't think the school should be providing a place to pray or providing support for any religion a la priests to lead prayer. I have no problem with kids quietly excusing themselves from class to go pray, it's really no different than excusing yourself from class to go to a dentist appointment.

Aren't there schools all over the country giving silent time in the morning during which Christians pray, Buddhists meditate, A-students study, and C-students doodle?

I am not familiar with any significant religious expression at any of my schools, and in general public schools seem terrified of any sort of religious expression, at least in my experience. At my highschool's interfaith baccalaureate, the student speakers were specifically prohibited from discussing their personal faith. What gives? Is a student speaker talking about at a school sponsored event somehow violating the constitution? That seems uneccessary to me, let the kids say what they want to say, regardless of how boring everyone else finds their personal relationship with jesus. I don't think HB's suggestion of praying during the lunch or some other regularly scheduled break is unreasonable - if the kids skip out for 15 minutes of school every day, that ends up being pretty significant in the course of a year.

Do you see the problem with
-prayers during class time, instead of wasting valuable teaching time
or
-prayers within the actual school, instead of elsewhere?

Taking up teaching time, yes, that shouldn't be wasted. However, teaching prayer at a young age is the only way for someone to really absorb that faith for life. If there is a routine schedule available for prayer time in a school, I have no problem. We had a multi-religious chapel at military school used for prayer (although it was clearly aimed towards Christianity). It opened the door between me and God wider than ever before.

Why should Jewish kids get Rosh Hasanah or Yom Kippur off? They should just celebrate during Christmastime or Easter.

You might have a point if it was one kid, but it's 100 kids in one elementary school. The school dealt with it by providing one well-placed study hall.

I would think that missing 15 minutes every day is going to be more disruptive than missing a couple of days a year. They could reschedule lunch to coincide with the prayer time, I just don't know why it has to be done during instruction time.

I think this is a tough one for school's and school board's to handle. How do you provide a first rate education to the students when a large segment will excuse themselves from classes for 15-20 minutes a day? What makes it particularly hard is the anti-religion precedents that have been set when trying to deal with Christianity. I think it will be telling to see how the ACLU and other related groups react.

I really don't have a problem with schools offering "quiet time" in schools. Just so long as it does not interfere with classroom time. I wouldn't have a problem with even having "quiet rooms" where kids could pray in "quiet time". But it shouldn't favor any religion, and again, that free time shouldn't interfere AT ALL with classroom instruction time. I would say that such rooms should only be used before and after school hours, or periods of study hall where the student is essentially free anyway.

In no way shape or form should students be taught HOW TO PRAY in a public school. That's what Sunday school is for. That's what parochial schools are for. That's what churches are for. That is NOT what public schools are for.

Muslim children don't even have to pray at prescribed times. Ask Muslims you know if they get up at 4AM for the first call to prayer. Not too many do. And it's not even a demarite so long as you make up for it. For instance, Miss LittleWing never prayed at 4AM, but did so as soon as she got up, and then at 10AM to make up for it. There's no reason Islamic kids should have to pray at a certain time, especially if it interferes with education.

Make the day 15 minutes longer?

Hell, we're dealing with elementary kids here, you wouldn't want to send your kids somewhere that didn't offer them at least 15 minutes of unstructured time during the day.

Part of the issue is that the school day schedule is now being determined around one group's religion. I don't ask my kid's school to schedule their day around his orthodontist appointments.

if parents want to teach it, fine. teachers shouldn't be directing students how to pray or what to pray for -- which is a huge mess -- in publicly funded schools.

is that how you refer to the war in iraq?

It most certainly isn't the only way to really absorb faith. People change religions and faith all the time.

As long as they aren't forced to pray, told what to pray, and it doesn't interfere with teaching or other student's rights not to pray, so be it. Let the other kids have recess while they pray.

Well, switching religions is a snap since you can't really prove when you've switched. I'm talking about learning to ride your bike as a kid and never forgetting how. The child's mind is most open than at any other age.