A Georgia county’s board of education says it has found a legal way to allow prayer before high school football games following complaints from an atheist organization.
Under the old policy, football games at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Ga., began with student-led prayer. That changed recently, when the high school omitted the prayer due to a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which wrote in a letter that the district “must take immediate action to end the practice of scheduling prayer at school-sponsored events and end the use of district equipment to project prayers to the public.”
Under the new policy, football games will begin with a student presenting whatever he or she desires, from a song to a poem to a prayer, according to WCTV-TV.
The Lowndes County Schools Board of Education adopted the policy on its first reading in a crowded meeting. Parents and boosters cheered as the new policy was passed.
It still must be approved in a second reading next month, although the board said it could go into effect immediately.
Board chairman Dave Clark said – “We knew coming in after our meeting last week that we had to put some work on it because our constituents were not going to let us say no way.”
One of those constituents, Joe Copeland, applauded the board for not backing down.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has successfully ended many prayers at sporting events at high schools around the country.