"Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg
Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country. Amen."
The above prayer was used to begin the
school day in the state of New York for most of
our nation's history. Students were not required
to say the prayer; they could remain silent, or
even step outside of the room during this time,
if they chose. However, a group of families
whose children attended public school in New
Hyde Park, New York, complained that this
voluntary prayer, called the "Regent's prayer,"
contradicted their religious beliefs, and they
eventually became the plaintiffs in the Supreme
Court case Engel v. Vitale. Three of the parties
were Jewish, the other two claimed to be
"spiritual" people who did not belong to any
particular organized religion.
The case marked the pinnacle of challenges
to religion in schools which had been growing in
the twentieth century. This movement was due
partially to the growth of public schools during
the time, in combination with the Supreme
Court's use of the Fourteenth Amendment to
apply First Amendment limitations to the states.
The Supreme Court ruled that it violated the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment
("Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion") for public schools to
hold official recitation of prayers, and that it was
not enough that students were neither required
to participate, or that there was no retaliation
for not participating. In the decision,, Justice
Hugo Black wrote: "We think that by using its
public school system to encourage recitation of
the Regents' prayer, the State of New York has
adopted a practice wholly inconsistent with the
Establishment Clause...It is no part of the
business of government to compose official
prayers for any group of the American people to
recite as a part of a religious program carried on
by government."
Engle v. Vitale is often cited as a decision
outlawing all prayer in public schools, but that is
not the case. The ruling prohibits schools from
writing or choosing a specific prayer and
requiring all students to say it. It does not
prohibit students from praying quietly to
themselves, nor does it prevent students from
gathering together before or after school for
prayer activities.
DIRECTIONS: Identify the central idea. Then summarize the article.