New Mexico —
FFRF successfully advised Silver Consolidated Schools in Silver City, N.M., to put a stop to a practice of allowing the high school graduation ceremony to be opened with a student-led prayer.
A community member stated that at the May 15 Cliff High School graduation ceremony, a student led the audience in prayer at the beginning of the ceremony. This was referred to as a “blessing” by the principal. The student prayer contained overtly Christian themes and concluded “in Jesus’s name.” While the prayer did not appear in the ceremony program, the fact that the principal introduced the student and called the prayer a “blessing,” and the fact that the student was clearly reciting a scripted prayer, suggested that the prayer was planned and approved of by the school. According to official videos of the event, prayer at Cliff High School’s graduation is not a new occurrence, as a prayer was delivered by a student at the 2025 ceremony in the same fashion. Finally, the community member expressed that they were very uncomfortable hearing a prayer being delivered at a public school graduation with the support of the staff.
“The school cannot avoid a constitutional violation by assigning students to give invocations or ‘blessings,’” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district.
District Superintendent William Hawkins wrote back to FFRF to confirm that the district would adhere to the Constitution going forward. “We will communicate the applicable legal expectations regarding religious neutrality at school -sponsored events and will direct that future graduation ceremonies and other school sponsored events be planned in a manner consistent with our Cliff School’s Community and District expectations,” Hawkins wrote.
