Should Prayer Be Allowed in Public Schools?

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School officials may not censor student religious speech on the grounds that it may be offensive to some. Although school officials may restrict student speech that “invades or collides with the rights of others,” private religious expression in student classwork does not implicate this concern.

That said, however, religious expression at graduation ceremonies remains a contentious issue in the public schools. The Supreme Court has ruled that when school officials lead prayer at a graduation exercise, it is clearly unconstitutional. However, the question of student-initiated religious continues to be debated in terms of whether such speech is private speech or government speech.

This debate has now expanded to include non-verbal forms of expression. For example, senior high school student Kathryn Nurre, an alto saxophonist with a wind ensemble, is challenging the decision by school officials to prohibit the ensemble from performing an instrumental arrangement of “Ave Maria” at their graduation ceremony because the superintendent believed the piece to be religious in nature.