Judge Bans Religious Words From Graduation Ceremony

A federal judge has ordered a Texas school district to prohibit public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony. Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbids students from using specific religious words including “prayer” and “amen.”

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The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz. Their son is among those scheduled to participate in Saturday’s graduation ceremony. The judge declared that the Schultz family and their son would “suffer irreparable harm” if anyone prayed at the ceremony.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the school district is in the process of appealing the ruling and his office has agreed to file a brief in their support.

“Part of this goes to the very heart of the unraveling of moral values in this country,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told Fox News Radio, saying the judge wanted to turn school administrators into “speech police.”

“I’ve never seen such a restriction on speech issued by a court or the government,” Abbott told Fox News Radio. “It seems like a trampling of the First Amendment rather than protecting the First Amendment.”

Judge Biery’s ruling banned students and other speakers from using and religious language in their speeches. Among the banned words or phrases are: “join in prayer,” “bow their heads,” “amen,” and “prayer.”

He also ordered the school district to remove the terms “invocation” and “benediction” from the graduation program.

“These terms shall be replaced with ‘opening remarks’ and ‘closing remarks’,” the judge’s order stated. His ruling also prohibits anyone from saying, “in [a deity’s name] we pray.”

Should a student violate the order, school district officials could find themselves in legal trouble. Judge Biery ordered that his ruling be “enforced by incarceration or other sanctions for contempt of Court if not obeyed by District official (sic) and their agents.”

The Texas attorney general called the ruling unconstitutional and a blatant attack from those who do not believe in God.

“Part of this goes to the very heart of the unraveling of moral values in this country today,” Abbott said, outraged over “attempts by atheists and agnostics to use courts to eliminate from the public landscape any and all references to God whatsoever.”

“This is the challenge we are dealing with here,” he said. “(It’s) an ongoing attempt to purge God from the public setting while at the same time demanding from the courts an increased yielding to all things atheist and agnostic.”

Ayesha N. Khan, an attorney representing the student and his parents, told KABB-TV she was delighted in the judge’s decision.

“It caused him a great deal of anxiety,” she said, referring to her teenage client. “He has gone to meet with the principal to try and talk in a civilized way about long-standing problems and the school district has continued to thumb its nose.”

The judge did grant students permission to make the sign of the cross, wear religious garb, or kneel to face Mecca. But that’s not good enough for some students at the high school.

“It’s just a big surprise that one kid can come in and change what’s been a tradition since Medina Valley started,” student Abigail Russell told KABB-TV.
Fellow student Alicia Jade Geurin agreed.

“At graduation, I would love to be able to speak from my heart,” she told the television station. “But in this situation I feel my freedom of speech and my First Amendment is being infringed upon if I can’t say what I feel.”

But the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, hailed the judge’s decision.

“This is a high school graduation,” he told Fox News Radio. “It is not a church service.”
Lynn was critical of the attorney general’s allegation that the ruling was an attempt to purge Christianity from the public square.

“Any attorney general worth his salt would know that’s the issue and that this is not about promoting atheism,” he said. “That’s ludicrous.”

143 Comments

Truth_Fairy

June 4, 2011 at 9:52 pm

"Irreparable harm?" And "anxiety?" Oh my! Is the Schultz child graduating from kindergarten or high school when (or if) he grows up? The Schultz family should be ashamed of themselves for ruining what should be a happy day for the seniors and Mr. Biery should be immediately forced to seek employment at McDonald's where he can learn that no one is more special than anyone else, his wonderful self included. What a drama queen! Boys and girls, we must'nt say this, and this, and that or Mr. Biery will get his knickers in a twist. Last I looked, we still have free speech in America, praise God!! And speaking of God, Who is the main point here, I pray Mr. Biery and the Schultzes accept Jesus' gracious offer soon, before it's too late because one way or the other, "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:10,11
Johnny Sands

June 5, 2011 at 4:39 pm

The judge in this case is doing exactly what is forbidden by the first amendment of our constitution and is also probably forbidden by his state constitution. Maybe the judge needs to spend a little time in jail for violating the rights of a free citizen!
J Y

June 5, 2011 at 10:02 pm

This are the people that are destroying our country and we are losing our rights to many things. If this people are disturbed when we pray then they should stay home. As they say you can't fix stupid and our judges are in the forefront.
JIM

June 6, 2011 at 11:41 am

You now what they should do to combat this stupidity ? They should have people in the audience sneeze and the person at the podium should say, "GOD BLESS YOU" throughout the service !
Gemsroadwarrior

June 18, 2011 at 9:54 pm

Funny thing, there is no freedom of speech here on this blog, they delete your comments without them even being posted if they don't like what you say. This judge must be working for FOX NEWS. Maybe that's why they fired Glenn Beck. FOX is moving to the left.
Stephanie

June 30, 2011 at 4:28 pm

The kid involved is a great kid under pressure from his parents who are atheist activists. He is an atheist himself but has no problem with others praying.

For the record overall it's not jews or muslims wanting to stand in the way of religious rights. It's the atheists. the most hate filled group of all.
Russ

August 22, 2011 at 10:43 am

Our Founders who ordered the printing of Bibles and promoted state churches (before the treasonous lies of deranged fascist criminal FDR's through Warren's and beyond SCOTUSes with delusions of godhood) would have put evil fascist antiChristian bigots like Biery to death for their evil treasonous lives and in WWII our boys went over to Europe and Japan put to put his murderous kind to death, but legislators today, especially but not only Demoncraps don't have the cajones to impeach and convict them (or their own!).
Timothy

October 6, 2011 at 7:34 pm

If Schultz thinks that hearing the word "Amen" or "prayer" will damage him or her irreparably, I would notice that the judge didn't make any ruling about addressing him or her as "atheist vermin."
Shea

June 5, 2011 at 10:25 am

The irony and ignorance of your post astounds me. Prayer at public school events or sanctioned prayer time during school hours is unconstitutional. It violates separation of church and state. No one is saying that you cannot have a prayer in your heart during these events or that you cannot be allowed to believe what you believe. It amazes me that Christians are the largest group in the United States, yet they are always the first to scream that they are being victimized whenever an outsider tries to speak up for their rights.

Even the Bible has an opinion on public prayer. You might want to try reading it (the whole thing not just the passage I'm suggesting) sometime. Matthew 6:5-8