FFRF has put a stop to several egregious constitutional violations at a kindergarten graduation ceremony at Valley Elementary School in Pikeville, Ky.
The school’s 2016 ceremony included a teacher-led prayer and the students singing, “Jesus Loves Me,” which they had reportedly been singing in their music classes for most of the school year. “It is coercive and inappropriate for a teacher to lead a prayer at a school function, and then to order the performance of ‘Jesus Loves Me’ by the students,” wrote FFRF Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert in a June 9 letter to the Pike County Schools.
General Counsel Neal Smith wrote back to FFRF on Aug. 23, saying he “cautioned our administration that open prayer at school-sponsored events should not take place and that faculty-led singing of hymns, such as ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ should also be avoided.”
