The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling upon the Brevard Public School Board to reject a proposal replacing its moment of silence at the beginning of its meetings with an official prayer.
The board currently observes a moment of silence, which is an inclusive practice that respects the diverse views of all community members, and FFRF strongly encourages it to retain this neutral approach.
The proposal for an opening prayer, as reported by Florida Today, has been introduced by new board member John Thomas, who describes it as a “meaningful step toward demonstrating how governance can be conducted with integrity, inclusivity, and respect for shared community values.” However, FFRF contends that such a measure would undermine the inclusivity and respect it promotes. At least 20 percent of Brevard County residents profess no religious affiliation. And up to 48 percent of Generation Z currently identifies either as atheists or nothing in particular.
“Contrary to the suggestion that these school-sponsored prayers would demonstrate ‘inclusivity’ or a ‘respect for shared community values,’ opening school board meetings with official prayers would compound religious division and marginalize many students and families, writes FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line. “It is coercive, embarrassing, and intimidating for nonreligious or minority faith citizens to be required to make a public showing of their nonbelief or differing beliefs (by not bowing their heads or praying) or else to display deference toward a religious sentiment in which they do not believe, but which their school board members clearly do.”
Thomas claims the prayer would “reflect … the vision of our country’s Founders, who upheld the right to religious expression without imposing a state-sponsored religion.” However, FFRF points out that the Founders intended to protect religious liberty by preventing government bodies from promoting religion. Public school boards, as government entities, must remain secular to serve all community members fairly and equitably.
“Public schools have a constitutional obligation to remain neutral on matters of religion, and an official prayer would send an exclusionary message to students, parents, and staff who do not share the same beliefs,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The current moment of silence allows all participants to privately reflect or pray in a way that aligns with their own conscience, without government interference.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly struck down school-sponsored prayer because it is coercive and constitutes government favoritism toward religion, which violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
In the most recent case, which was filed by FFRF, striking down a school board’s prayer practice, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed that Establishment Clause concerns are heightened in the context of public schools “because children and adolescents are just beginning to develop their own belief systems, and because they absorb the lessons of adults as to what beliefs are appropriate or right.” The court reasoned that prayer at school board meetings “implicates the concerns with mimicry and coercive pressure that have led us to ‘be … particularly vigilant in monitoring compliance with the Establishment Clause.’”
FFRF is urging the Brevard Public School Board to stand by its current practice and to resist pressures to introduce divisive, unconstitutional government-hosted prayer into its proceedings.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with more than 40,000 members and several chapters across the country, including more than 2,000 members and a chapter in Florida. Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism
