Beaver high school in Pennsylvania banned a girl from speaking about God or her faith in her graduation speech
According to conservative commentator; Todd Starnes there have been many incidents of public school discriminating against Christian beliefs.
Moriah Bridges was told by her principal Steven Wellendorf that a prayer at a public school event–even led by a student–is not allowed by law.
The young girl had planned to say a prayer in her graduation speech:
“Make us selfless. Make us just. Make us successful people, but more than that, make us good people,” she had planned to say. “Lord, surround us with grace and favor everywhere we go.
Soften our hearts to teach us love and compassion, to show mercy and grace to others the way that you showed mercy and grace to us, even to the ultimate sacrifice. Help us love our brothers and our sisters deeply. Lead us to bless them.”
The principal had written to Bridges stating:
, “The selected students may still address their class and indicate the things that they wish/hop for their class, but they may not do it in the style of a prayer and most certainly may not recite a prayer that excludes other religions (by ending ‘in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ’ or ‘in the matchless name of Jesus.’”
After the school districthad banned her from making her speech, declaring that it was unconstitutional, she made the decision to contact First Liberty Institute to take up her case.
She had this to say:
“I was shocked that the school said my personal remarks broke the law and I was saddened that I could not draw upon my Christian identity to express my best wishes for my classmates on what should’ve been the happiest day of high school,”
First Liberty Institute is said to have requested a meeting with the beaver high school officials to address Moriah’s case.
First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys stated in defence that forcing Moriah to remove certain statements from her speech was a violation of the first amendment:
“In short, school officials – in violation of the First Amendment – forced Moriah to censor her personal remarks during the closing exercise of her commencement ceremony merely because of the religious viewpoint of her remarks.”
