Prayer in Public Schools essays

Prayer in Public Schools essays During the past year, the United States watched a heated legal and emotional public debate concerning the removal of a Ten Commandments' monument on display at an Alabama courthouse (Niemeyer Pp). Recently, the National Assembly of France, in a 494 to 36 vote, approved banning headscarves worn by fundamentalist Muslims, yamulkas by Orthodox Jews, and crosses by Christians in public schools (Niemeyer Pp). Although, the United States is still debating the 1962 Engel v. Vitale decision banning organized school prayer, it is difficult to imagine that Congress or the Supreme Court would ever ban religious images in public schools (Niemeyer Pp). However, for decades, many religious leaders have believed that no greater harm can come to religion than when placed in the states' hands At issue in Engel v. Vitale was "whether a non-denominational prayer, recited in every classroom in a school district, violated the First provision for separation of church and state" (Engel Pp). Many parents that the NYS Regents-composed prayer violated the First Amendment's separation of church and state, while the New York Board of Education of Hyde Park contended that it was a non-denominational prayer and that the schools did not compel any student to recite it (Engel Pp). The Supreme "found that the school district violated the students' First Amendment because even though the students did not have to say the prayer, the the prayer in class would put unwanted pressures on them" (Engel Pp). Moreover, the "non-denominational prayer was found to be too religious for state to mandate and was in violation of the establishment clause of the Dissenting, Justice Stewart, stated, "The Court does not hold, nor could it, that New York has interfered with the free ex ...