Missouri
FFRF worked to ensure that the Adair County R-II School District in Brashear, Mo., will no longer impose prayer before the National Honor Society.
A community member informed FFRF that a district employee commenced a Brashear High School National Honor Society induction with prayer. Video confirmed the account, featuring an overtly Christian prayer.
“A prayer’s popularity is immaterial; courts have continually reaffirmed that the rights of minorities are nonetheless protected by the Constitution,” FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi wrote to the district.
FFRF was informed by the district that they would investigate the situation. In a later letter, the district concluded that the district will abide by the Constitution, and the district “affirms that sponsors of student activities have received additional direction regarding the propriety and/or impropriety of invocations by staff with students and the parameters related thereto.”
