Green Local Schools, Green, Ohio, has instructed administrative staff that prayers will not be permitted at future school-sponsored events. An honors banquet, spring banquet and the senior awards night at Green High School had all included prayer.
"It is unlawful for any school-sponsored event to include prayer," Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca Markert wrote in the first of two letters to the district. "The U.S. Supreme Court has found prayers at other traditional after-school events, such as football games and graduations, unconstitutional."
Mary Jo Shannon Slick, attorney for the district, replied July 9 that Superintendent Jeffrey Miller has instructed staff that prayers, even if student initiated, won't be permitted at events. Shannon Slick said the class president gave a prayer on her own initiative at the awards event.