California
The Hart-Ransom USD Board of Trustees in Modesto has agreed not to include a prayer before meetings by FFRF.
A district parent reported that the board had been beginning each of its meetings with a prayer led by one of the members, as well as official agendas listing an “invocation” at the beginning of meetings. The board reportedly asked attendees to participate in the prayer and that the prayers are specifically and uniformly Christian. FFRF’s complainant further explained that they are nonreligious, and the board’s opening prayer at the meeting they attended made them “extremely uncomfortable.”
“Students and parents, such as our complainant, have the right — and often reason — to participate in school board meetings,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote to the district. “It is coercive, insensitive and intimidating to force nonreligious and minority faith citizens to choose between making a public showing of being non-Christian by refusing to participate in the prayer or else display deference toward a religious sentiment in which they do not believe, but which their school board members clearly do.”
After FFRF’s letter, district Superintendent Matthew Shipley responded to the concerns. “We have consulted with legal counsel regarding your concern,” Shipley wrote. “Future board meetings will no longer be opened with prayer. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.”
