The Common Cause club at Mountain Ridge High School in Arizona simply wanted to exercise the same rights given to other student organizations.
The school district permits student club members to submit written announcements to be read over the school's public address system, as well as video announcements to be played to the student body. In these announcements, club members are allowed to inform the student body not only of club meeting logistics (date, time, and location), but also to share information about the specific types of activities that will occur.
As an example, the Young Democrats of America club aired a video announcement which shared the following information:
- "In 2006, young voters ages 18-29 supported Democratic candidates by an impressive 58%"
- "Remember ...we're young. We're Democrats. We're Voting"
On the other hand, Common Cause club has been prohibited from communicating even the fact that religious activities will take place at its meetings.
On January 14, 2007, a club representative, Erin, submitted a weekly announcement which read, "Common Cause will be having weekly prayer every Friday morning at 7:20 at the administration flagpole, come join us!" The same day, the club submitted a video message communicating, "Our motto is...don't worry about anything...instead, PRAY about everything! Common Cause presents...we pray...together...encouragingly...hopefully...upliftingly."
The next day, Erin met with the school's assistant principal and was told that her written and video announcements would not be allowed because they contained the words "prayer" and "pray."
The assistant principal claimed the announcements would violate the supposed "separation of church and state." When Erin responded that the First Amendment provided protection for such announcements, the assistant principal claimed none of that mattered. In other words, the First Amendment did not matter! Erin then asked to have the announcement back, but the assistant principal, perhaps in an attempt to assert her authority, ripped it up in front of her and discarded it.
With situations like this becoming increasingly common, it seems that "pray" has become the new four-letter word. While clubs like the Young Democrats of America, the Gay-Straight Alliance, and Students Against Destructive Decisions are allowed to operate freely on school grounds, expression of religion is prohibited.
ADF is working to help protect these cherished freedoms and to restore rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all citizens. By God's grace, we have won countless victories for students across the country, but as we know, the fight to protect religious expression is far from over.
Your gift makes it possible for us to defend Erin and others like her, reclaiming and preserving the rights our Founding Fathers intended us to hand down from generation to generation.
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