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Resolution allows Washington students to pray, start prayer club

A school district in Washington state has reversed its decision to suspend 12 students who got in trouble because they prayed together. The reversal includes a meeting place for the students to begin a school-sponsored prayer club.



Back in March, the students at Heritage High School in Vancouver were suspended after they prayed together in the commons area of their cafeteria. School officials had received a complaint from a Satanist, who was upset over the public prayers. After being contacted about the matter, Liberty Counsel quickly sent a letter to school officials, outlining the constitutional rights of public school students.

Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver says it is "absolutely unconstitutional, let alone reprehensible, for schools to censor students because their sole desire to gather together is for prayer."

But now, says Staver, the issue has been resolved. "In addition to allowing these students to pray, they also have given these students an opportunity and a location to start a club where they can meet regularly," he shares; "and their academic records and their files are now purged of any indication of these suspensions. So the school has taken a 180-degree turn."

According to a Liberty Counsel press release, the students had asked school officials if they could start a prayer club, but were denied by the vice principal. Consequently, the students began to pray during lunch in their commons area of the cafeteria. Shortly thereafter, they were suspended. Staver says many of the students involved are immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

"These students ... have now learned a great lesson that here in America, yes there may be persecution and discrimination, but you can make a difference if you stand up for Jesus Christ as these young students did in this case," says the attorney.

Liberty Counsel notes that the group began praying together again on May 1, a significant date in the lives of Russian immigrants. "May Day" is the day the former Communist Soviet Union celebrated communism.