Aguillard: school policy affords students opportunities to pray

School leaders said today that St. Mary Parish school system policy affords students the opportunity to pray.
Superintendent Donald Aguillard and Assistant Superintendent Teresa Bagwell addressed the St. Mary Parish School Board policy concerning prayer in school which originally was written in 1995 and amended to reflect changes to the law as recently as 2013.
“I think the policy is very clear, and it certainly affords students the opportunity to pray if they so desire in schools. It gives a significant amount of Constitutional protection that that’s permissible and encouraged and allowed in schools,” Aguillard said.
A Veterans Day program at Morgan City High School during school hours at an assembly students were required to attend included a prayer said by a Navy veteran. A student protested the prayer to the American Humanist Association, which threatened the school district with legal action.
“We focus so much on the Veterans Day event and the issue raised in the letter from the humanist society was merely the fact that it wasn’t student-led. That one little piece of the program was not student-led,” Aguillard said.
The school system policy would allow students to congregate in an available space before class, after class, at lunch and hold a function where prayer would be permissible. It would be outside the requirements for education, Aguillard said.
Bagwell added that Prayer at the Pole and Insight, a youth prayer group typically held at lunch, are both held at numerous schools across the parish.
The policy also welcomes staff to participate in prayer as long as they are not missing instructional time to do so, Aguillard said.
“It allows for the expression of faith to occur,” he said.
Aguillard and Bagwell said no one is saying or ever has said that prayer is not allowed in school.
Had the student president of the Historical Society led the prayer, it would have been legal, Bagwell said.
Aguillard added that if the moment of reflection by the Rev. Thomas Fromenthal had only included reflection on the veterans, the service they provided to the country and the lives lost fighting for freedom, “that would have been an appropriate moment of reflection.”
Bagwell said Fromenthal could have added a moment of silence “just not directed to a prayer.”
Another example is that a student can lead the school in prayer prior to announcements, but an administrator cannot, Aguillard said.
Bagwell said students need to be allowed the option to attend or not.
“Students had gotten the program ahead of time. Now they may not have equated moment of reflection to prayer. That’s completely understandable. Let’s just say at the point she realized it was a prayer that was against her beliefs if she would have turned to the teacher and said, ‘I need to step out. I don’t believe in this.’ The teacher would have let her step out into the hallway and come back in or even go sit in the guidance office or library rather than attend the ceremony. She would have had the option to leave.”
Aguillard, however, said the school system attorney Eric Duplantis, said he does not believe the opt-out is an acceptable deviation from the policy.
“We’re talking about children. They may not have the courage to opt-out. So we have to be cognizant that we don’t imbed the idea that they can go to the library if they don’t want to go to the program,” Aguillard said.
Students, parents and residents gathered in Morgan City’s Lawrence Park Thursday afternoon to speak out about their belief that the ability to pray is being taken away.
Lesly Reeves identified herself as a concerned citizen who is Christian by faith.
“I think we are all entitled to our religious beliefs, our backgrounds, no matter whether you’re Catholic, Baptist, protestant, whatever, Buddhist, atheist, we all have a right to take time and pray if we want to pray. Whether it’s a Christian organization at a school. It was a letter that was took too far and too many people are now upset,” Reeves said.
The Morgan City High School Historical Society, a history club, sponsors an annual Veterans Day program. It was during this program that Fromenthal’s comments, listed on the program as a “moment of reflection,” were questioned.
Fromenthal, pastor of Cornerstone Ministries and a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran, confirmed that he did say a prayer concerning veterans.
“If I want to pray and you do not want to pray, I’m not forcing my beliefs on you. I just feel like I should be able to pray wherever I want to pray. If it’s a Christian-based organization done through a school board or a school and it’s done every year, then why, all of a sudden, there’s a problem this year,” Reeves said.
Morgan City High School senior Michael Mancuso said the Veterans Day program is student-led.
“Prayer is legal in the public schools … the only type of prayer that’s illegal in the public schools is government-sponsored prayer. That’s the only type that’s not allowed. That means that, pretty much, the government cannot regulate in schools,” Mancuso said.
He referenced the female student who complained to the Washington, D.C., -based American Humanist Association. She has not been publicly named.
“The thing was, she didn’t exercise her student rights. She had the right to sit down and be quiet or to walk out the room. The students of Morgan City High School today were very upset,” Mancuso said.
He told the roughly 40 people gathered in the park to reach out to their elected representatives on the parish and state levels.
“Even though this happened at Morgan City, it’s going to trickle to Berwick, Patterson, Franklin, everywhere. We need not just do this at the community level. We need to get it to the parish level. Talk to your state representatives, stuff like that,” Mancuso said.
Terry Dupont also referenced the letter writer.
“We need to let the girl know we’re not against her. She had the right to do what she did. … She did nothing wrong. I want them to be responsible. I want them to know what to do,” Dupont said.