Politics & Government
School District Criticized for Prayer Practices
The School District of Pickens County has received a letter from a national organization asking them to stop praying before school board meetings.
A national organization has sent a letter of complaint asking the School District of Pickens County to strike one of its agenda items at future school board meetings.
The board received a letter from Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation after someone complained to the organization about school board meetings being opened with a student-led invocation.
John Eby, a spokesman for the district told WYFF, "If we felt like it was violating the constitution, we wouldn't be doing it."
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The letter called for the district to "take immediate action and refrain from scheduling prayers" in the future. The group also called the prayers led each month by students from a different school within the district "unconstitutional."
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Last year, the same organization filed a complaint and later joined a lawsuit filed against School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties in South Carolina, regarding prayer at Irmo High School's June graduation.
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