Students at a Kentucky school defied an atheist group's campaign against religious practices when they recited a prayer in school at a pre-football game ceremony.
At the pre-game event last Friday, a group of students who called themselves First Priority of the Bell County High School recited the prayer using their own public address system.
"It's not an organised prayer. It will happen sometime before the game, probably over the loud speaker," teacher Samantha Johnson told WKYT-TV. "It's been a long-standing tradition here at Bell County High School, that there be prayer at the football games. Then there was obviously someone who was opposed to it."
The decision to allow the prayer by the students was approved by the Bell County Board of Education based on a request by First Priority.
Joe Humfleet, head of the high school football Booster club, said he hopes that the school system would not bow down to a complaint by a few people.
"We need to go on with what's right. We're letting the minority dictate what we do," Humfleet said. "It's not right morally, and it's not right by our American way," he said.
Humfleet was referring to the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), which sent a letter on Aug. 20 to the school board asking it to "rescind this unconstitutional decision and refrain from injecting illegal prayer at school-sponsored events."
The group said in 2011, it contacted Supt. George Thompson about the prayers at school-sponsored events. The board then stopped the prayers over the loudspeaker before the holding of athletic events.
"Given the clear legal precedent on this issue, it is surprising—not to mention baffling—that the school board would knowingly violate the law and bring back prayer before athletic games," the FFRF said. "To reiterate, it is illegal for a public school to sponsor religious messages at school athletic events."
