Florida —
FFRF helped Alachua County Public Schools put an end to a practice and pattern of starting the Citizen of the Year Award ceremony with an invocation.
FFRF received a report that the district’s May 27 Citizen of the Year Award ceremony included a prayer event. Though the local Kiwanis Club assisted with the event, the district was responsible for selecting students to receive the award, and the district advertised and appeared to help organize the ceremony. Taken together, the district’s actions and involvement heavily suggested that the Citizen of the Year Award ceremony was, at least in a significant part, a school-sponsored event.
Per official video of the event, the invocation occurred during the award ceremony with students, family members and district employees in attendance, and the invocation was overtly Christian. This allegedly also occurred in 2023 and 2024.
“Inserting prayer into an awards ceremony meant to honor outstanding students forces those students and their families to choose between attending or remaining at the ceremony and participating in a prayer that they do not believe in or exiting the ceremony in order to avoid violating their conscience,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote.
After receiving the letter, the district conducted an investigation. The district’s legal representative confirmed that positive action had been taken. “The entity who delivered the prayer will not be involved in this event in the future,” district representative Patrick J. Duggan wrote. “As a result, we do not expect any issues moving forward.”
