Arizona —
The Colorado City USD in Arizona changed a longstanding practice of including prayer in graduation ceremonies after FFRF stood up on behalf of students who had been ignored by the school board.
A student at El Capitan High School stated that the district and its governing board had a pattern and practice of mandating prayer at the school’s graduation ceremony. The student said the invocation and benediction have been “a mandatory practice for all previous graduation years.” The district planned to include prayers at the June 3 graduation, evidenced by the ceremony program that was given to participating students in advance. A copy of the program provided to FFRF showed that two students had been selected ahead of time to lead the entire audience, including fellow students, in an invocation and benediction.
The student also reported that a number of El Capitan High School’s graduating students complained to the district and governing board about the mandatory prayers. Reportedly, the governing board resisted removing the prayers, and a board member stated at a meeting that “It is the school’s graduation, not the students’”
Due to complaints, the district and governing board altered the 2026 graduation program, with the entire audience and students being led in a school-sponsored prayer “before the ceremony started” and that the prayer was “optional.”
After receiving a letter from FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence stating this alteration was still unconstitutional, Superintendent Carol Timpson confirmed that the district had taken action. “Our board consulted with the district attorney and consequently removed prayer from the program,” Timpson wrote. “They have also adopted a graduation template to be used each year going forward that begins the program with a moment of silence rather than prayer.”
