Appeals Court OKs Student-Led Prayer Plan in Florida.

A federal appeals court has upheld a Florida school district's plan that allows graduating seniors to choose a member of their class to deliver a prayer or other message during the graduation ceremony.

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled May 11 that the policy devised by Duval County's public school system is constitutional. The court had reached the same conclusion in March of 2000 but was ordered to reconsider that ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In June of 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that a Texas school district's policy of permitting student-led prayers before football games was unconstitutional. The high court ordered the 11th circuit to reconsider its ruling in light of that decision. The move was seen as a strong indication that the Supreme Court wanted the 11th Circuit to find the policy unconstitutional.

Instead, the justices, sitting en banc as a full panel, ruled 8-4 that the Duval County policy can remain in place. The court insisted that the Duval policy is substantially different from the football prayer case, holding that school officials had no control over the speech of students.

Duval's policy allows seniors to vote on whether to have a message delivered by a fellow classmate. If they vote yes, school officials are not permitted to review the student's comments ahead of time. The messages are limited to two minutes.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which litigated the Adler v. Duval County case, has promised to appeal the recent ruling to the Supreme Court again.

In other news about religion in public schools:

* A valedictorian in Illinois who filed suit to block prayers at graduation was booed while accepting her diploma in May. Graduating senior Natasha Appenheimer brought suit against Washington Community High School in Washington, Ill., challenging the practice of including an invocation in the ceremony. A federal judge blocked the official prayers May 17, rejecting arguments from the school that a majority of students had voted for the religious worship. (Appenheimer v. School Board of Washington Community High School District 308)

* Seven state legislators in Washington have protested a decision to send about 650 public high school students on a field trip to Portland, Ore., to hear a talk by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and political leader. In a May 2 letter, the lawmakers asserted that the trip was inappropriate because the Dalai Lama is a religious figure.

The event was organized by Sharon Kitzhaber, the wife of Oregon Gov. John A. Kitzhaber. She insisted that the gathering was not religious in nature and was intended only to educate the students about non-violence. After the controversy broke, private donors stepped forward and agreed to pay for the cost of busing the students to the event.

* The Fredonia, N.Y., Board of Education has apologized to an elementary school student who was told he could not carry a cross during a Halloween parade. During the Oct. 31 parade, Zachary Cash dressed as Jesus and wanted to carry a cardboard cross reading "Jesus Saves." School officials told him he could not carry it, although they did allow him to post a sign reading "Jesus Saves" on his back.

Earlier this year, attorneys with Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice wrote to the school threatening a lawsuit. The school, unwilling to pay for a lawsuit over a matter it saw as fairly minor, agreed to issue an apology.

* A ninth-grader in Union County, Tenn., has criticized education officials for dismissing students to take part in a religious crusade. Tyla Tracy says fellow students have harassed her and called her a witch for declining to attend the crusade, which is sponsored by a Baptist church and takes place at a park next to the school.

The school board allows elementary, middle and high school students to attend the crusade for 90 minutes a day and distributes permission slips for parents to sign, Tracy said she was once given extra schoolwork as punishment for not attending the crusade.

The event's organizer, Pastor Gary Beeler of Fairview Baptist Church, said the event is a form of released time. Beeler also told the website freedomforum.org that separation of church and state isn't in the Constitution.

* Voters in North Allegheny, Pa., have removed several members from a Religious Right-dominated school board, replacing them with a slate of moderates. Four board incumbents who had promoted Religious Right causes were ejected during a May 15 primary election.

The board has become embroiled in a number of church-state controversies over the past few years. Last summer, for example, some board members tried to block the adoption of a fifth-grade social studies textbook that they claimed had a liberal slant.

The slate of moderate Republicans won by margins of nearly 2-1. "I believe that the social studies textbook flap and other similar issues brought people to the polls so that those individuals who had a connection to the Christian Coalition would be defeated," Rabbi Art Donsky told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.