A long-standing tradition of reciting or singing the Lord’s Prayer at Ohio’s East Liverpool High School’s graduation ceremony has been corrected.
A complainant informed FFRF that the prayer has been recited at graduation for the past 70 years. In 2015, the school choir sang the prayer as part of the event’s program.
“It is wholly inappropriate to put on performances of songs of worship in a public school setting,” said FFRF Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert in a letter to the district. “The song has a devotional, biblical message, and thus would be appropriate in a church setting, but not in a public school. There are a multitude of secular songs that would be far more appropriate.”
The Board of Education president shared his view with a news reporter in May. “When I was first on this board I expressed a concern about us singing. The comment made was that ‘we know we are breaking the law, we will do it until we get caught.’ Well, ladies and gentlemen, we got caught.”
On May 16, the superintendent told FFRF that the prayer would not be included in this year’s ceremony. Although the valedictorian then led the prayer of his own accord, the prayer was not school-sanctioned or on the ceremony program.
