INDIANAPOLIS, May 2 (UPI) -- Public school officials in Indiana say they will not appeal a judge's ruling prohibiting student-led prayer at Greenwood High School graduation ceremonies.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker granted a preliminary injunction Friday banning student-led prayer at the school's May 28 commencement. Barker found "the process in place permitting a student-led prayer at Greenwood represents a clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment, as does the delivery of a specific prayer set to occur as the result of that process during the upcoming 2010 graduation ceremony," The Indianapolis Star reported Sunday.
Students at the school had voted in favor of having prayer at the graduation. Greenwood Superintendent David Edds said the district will no longer hold such votes, the newspaper reported.
"We wanted to make the case that we believe it (prayer) has a place in high school graduations," Edds said. "We think the students … who made the decision to have a prayer should be able to have that voice as well."
Barker found the school "put itself in constitutional duck soup" by violating the rights of students who voted in the minority against prayer at the graduation ceremony.
The decision to allow prayer was challenged in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of class valedictorian Eric Workman, who asserted the prayer would violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. ACLU-Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said the judge's ruling "is what the Constitution demands in this instance."
" I hope everyone understands the scope of the Constitution here," Falk said.
