Public Wants Prayer at Pickens School Meetings

A huge crowd came to the district office Monday night, calling on school board members to fight a request from a Wisconsin-based organization to halt student-led invocations at school board meetings.

The crowd spilled out of the boardroom, into the district office and out on the front lawn as attendees waited to see what action the board would take on the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s letter.

Many signed up to speak at the meeting, appealing directly to the board. None of the speakers spoke in defense of the foundation’s request.

Former board member Oscar Thorsland said the foundation’s stand “not only totally wrong ….but absolutely absurd.”

“It is unbelievable that you’re being charged with an unconstitutional act by opening school board meetings with prayer,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. The evidence is overwhelming that prayer was an indispensable part as our founding fathers drafted and wrote the Constitution.”

Dr. Wayne Dickard asked the board to “represent the vast majority of Pickens County and continue the practice of student-led prayer in our school system.”

Pickens High School student Brett Harris said the First Amendment states Congress shall make no respecting the establishment of religion or preventing the exercise thereof. 

“As such, not only is implementation of prayer completely constitutional, but for a Wisconsin-based organization, that’s never met us, that’s completely unaffected by these proceedings, to suggest that prayer is unconstitutional, is not only offensive, but they just became the offenders of the Constitution,” Harris said. “We need to stand strong, not only for our constitutional rights, but for our faith.”

But legal counsel delivered bad news for supporters.

Attorney Dave Duff said that his firm, other firms and the SC Attorney General’s Office had given their opinions on the issue, at the request of the district, and that the opinions were clear on what is impermissible and what may be constitutionally permissible.  

“The only form of prayer that may be constitutionally permissible – and I emphasize may be – on the part of a school board at a school board meeting is what’s referred to as non-sectarian prayer.”

“What non-sectarian means essentially is the prayer cannot be associated with a particular religion,” Duff continued. “It has to be more general and more non-denominational.”

The three in-state opinions the district received said “it’s not even a sure thing” that non-sectarian by a school board or at a school board meeting is constitutional under the establishment clause, he said. 

“It’s really an unanswered question in our circuit,” Duff said. “Other federal courts, unfortunately those courts have held that the non-sectarian exception does not apply to a school board.”

The exception may apply to a county or town council said.

“Because of the nature of school boards, that same exception does not apply to school boards,” Duff said.

The Fourth Circuit, which covers South Carolina, has not addressed the issue as it applies to school boards.

“It has said non-sectarian prayer is okay county councils, town councils, other types of deliberative bodies” Duff said. “You are dealing with an are of the law that is unclear, that is unsettled.”  

“You are the government,” Duff told the board. “You are limited by the establishment clause. The only possibility of continuing with school board prayer here in Pickens County is to go in the direction of non-sectarian legislative prayer.

“Unfortunately, it is clear under all the opinions you have received, that your continuation of your past practice of student-led sectarian prayer to open your board meetings, in the view of everyone who’s looked at it, is not sustainable in a constitutional sense,” Duff said. “As much as we’d like to do it, as much as we’d like to continue it, in a court of law, that would not be upheld.”   

Duff referenced many of the speakers who had claimed that students or teachers would be denied the right to pray.

“The only topic that we’re addressing here tonight is school board at school board meetings,” Duff said. “It’s very clear under the constitution ….that students have every right under the First Amendment to pray in school. They can pray individually, they can pray in small groups. They can pray before a test, before a meal. They can pray during free time during the day, so long as it does not interfere with instruction. By the same token, teachers can pray during the school.”

Oconee County’s school board opens with a moment of silence, Duff said

“Moment of silence is clearly constitutional,” he said.

The crowd audibly disapproved of that suggestion.  

Board Chairman Judy Edwards moved to have the board direct administration to work with legal counsel “to develop a policy consistent with the state law on public invocations.”  

“That would allow the board to permit a non-sectarian opening prayer or invocation to be offered at our meetings,” Edwards said.

The draft policy would be presented at the next board meeting, she said.

Trustee Alex Saitta asked Duff that, if the motion passed, would the board’s non-sectarian prayer be any different from the prayers of county council or town councils or those of the U.S. Congress.

“All of those prayers must be non-sectarian opening prayer,” Duff said. “If you pass this motion, I think it would be consistent with what’s occurring with any county councils or city councils.”   

Saitta said the school district wasn’t afraid of a dispute.

“Prove it,” someone in the audience called out.

But Saitta said he didn’t fight to lose.

“The Supreme Court has not rule which side of the spectrum school board prayer sits on,” he said. 

The lower courts have had different rulings on the issue.

“It leans against praying in the school board meeting, but it’s mixed,” Saitta said. “You ultimately have to go to the Supreme Court to decide.”

“Do you want to create a strategy that you can defend and win or do you want to make a point and lose?” he asked. “The issue is, can you create a legal defense to win?

“I think what (Duff) has recommended, taking what we do and tweaking it a little bit, standing on it, is a reasonable suggestion that has a good chance to win,” Saitta said.

Trustee Jim Shelton said he could not support the motion.

He said the law was only 41 years old.

“During that time, I can’t remember a single complaint that’s occurred because 10 times a year a student stands in that well and offers their own prayer,” Shelton said. “That prayer is a part of the heritage, the culture, the tradition of this community. I think that’s an integral part of this community.”

While he respected the counsel of Duff and other legal minds, he'd read the legal briefs and “there’s a lot of holes in these legal opinions," Shelton said. 

“My opinion is this, we stand and fight,” Shelton said.

The motion passed 4-2, with Edwards, Saitta and Trustees Jimmy Gillespie and Dr. Herb Cooper supporting the motion.

Before the vote, Trotter explained why he could not support the motion, stating it wasn’t clear if even non-sectarian prayer would pass without a challenge.  

“I think there was God before there was a Constitution,” Trotter said. “I still believe we ought to pray the way we’ve always prayed. You go to the Father through the Son and if you leave Jesus Christ out of your prayer, it’s like whistling in the wind.”