After the superintendant at a public school said no to graduation prayers, he is under fire from the local community. Sean Rickert of Pima Unified School District in Arizona decided there would be no prayers during the high school graduation ceremony in 2014 despite students voting otherwise and this seems to have put off the entire community.

“I was kind of upset because our class voted for prayer, and to have the superintendent say we could not have prayer for graduation, it sucked,” said Calleigh Summers.

While speaking to the media on May 8, Rickert explained that as an administrator, he tried to increase the district’s compliance with the law, thus refusing prayers during the students’ graduation ceremony. According to him, the school could be sued even for allowing prayer at a graduation ceremony.

“Avoiding a lawsuit is not what is driving this. Our primary reason is to make sure we are not violating student’s rights,” he said.

Advocates of the First Amendment assert organizing prayers in public schools can lead to discrimination between religious and non-religious students. Non-believers at Pima Unified School District think the school has been lucky to not have been sued as yet. To make things clear, Rickert explained, prayers have not been banned so Christian students and their families can pray throughout the ceremony if they like but a formal prayer cannot be organized by the school administration.

Photo Credits: Esbie