The U.S. Constitution may prohibit mandatory prayer in public schools, but it doesn’t prohibit schools from allowing students to pray on their own initiative, says City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, who wants to encourage the practice.
“Students are free to pray alone or in groups as long as the activity is not disruptive and does not infringe on the rights of others,” according to a resolution adopted unanimously in Council yesterday at Blackwell’s request.
It calls for Council’s Education Committee, headed by Blackwell, to schedule hearings on prayer in Philadelphia public schools.
“We want to discuss the policy, see if it needs to be amended and certainly let the citizens know that the issue does exist,” Blackwell told reporters. “There is a way people can have free religious expression within schools.”
The U.S. Supreme Court issued several landmark rulings in the 1960s, first outlawing required prayer in New York State’s public schools and then overturning a Pennsylvania law that mandated Bible readings, as well as the Lord’s Prayer.
“In the relationship between man and religion, the state is firmly committed to a position of neutrality,” wrote…
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