Prayer, Youth Minister Allowed at Ark. School Graduation

Prayer, Youth Minister Allowed at Ark. School Graduation

A high school in Omaha, Ark., allowed two students to open and close their graduation ceremony Friday with prayer and a youth ministry leader to act as the commencement speaker after originally barring both.

The senior class of Omaha High School had unanimously voted for prayer and for David Griffith, director of Christian ministry K-Life in nearby Harrison, Ark., to speak as part of their ceremony. However, the class was told by officials that they could not support such practices, however, due to separation of church and state.

Following legal counsel from Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit organization that defends religious freedom, the school reversed its position.

"It is a shame that school officials continue to make it difficult for students to commemorate their graduations with an acknowledgement of God,” said Mathew D. Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, in a statement. “Rather than being an alien to the Constitution, religious speech is a preeminent freedom."

After receiving news of the school officials’ original decision, Kendon Underwood, vice president of Omaha High's senior class, had contacted Liberty Counsel to challenge the school’s decision. When Liberty Counsel attorneys confronted the school district to overturn their position, the legal experts explained that it went against First Amendment free speech rights and was viewpoint discrimination.

The lawyer on behalf of the school district responded and agreed that the student’s did have a right to prayer but also maintained that the area superintendent did have the justification to decide that there would be no speaker.

Still, Liberty Counsel, representing both Underwood and Griffith, continued to affirm that the speaker was also allowed alongside prayer. The school district officials eventually agreed to both.

According to Liberty Counsel, Underwood went on to give the school’s invocation and Griffith’s speech included references to his “heroes,” the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus Christ, as well as “encourag[ing] the graduates to do worthwhile things that mattered because their lives are valuable gifts from God.”