^{Note: School location corrected, mybad.}

Normally the Establishment clause is used to keep religion out of schools, but in this case, a group of kids who wanted to pray before school were suspended and driven off campus because they didn’t want to organize, they just wanted to pray together.

Suspended Heritage students move prayer group

A group of students met to pray Monday on a sidewalk just off the grounds of Heritage High, where a dozen students were recently disciplined after ignoring warnings to move their prayer group out of a well-trafficked area so they wouldn’t disrupt education.

It was a common area, and it was before class.  What’s the problem?

Ann Sosky, principal of the school, said she didn’t know how many students were in the group Monday or who they were, but that they came into the building when the bell rang at 7:20 a.m.

Sosky said she was already at school when an arriving teacher notified her of the group outside. Because the students were on a public sidewalk, Sosky said she told the teacher they were within their rights.

How gracious.

No problems were reported during the school day, she said.

Darn those religious people for being so peaceful.

For the past two weeks, a group of students had been meeting in the school commons before class to pray. Other students questioned the group’s failure to comply with rules for all students and clubs, and tensions began to mount in the 2,400-student school, which is in the Evergreen Public Schools district.

The group was told numerous times it could meet for prayer but had to form a club with a staff adviser and meet in a classroom. When they ignored the rules, they were told they could be disciplined.

Again, appreciate the irony:  They were being forced to organize when so many schools suppress religious clubs.

Sosky clarified Monday that two students who had joined the prayer group Friday were given one-day, in-school suspensions and 10 others were given longer suspensions that were shortened to three days because administrators conferred with the students’ parents.

Rename the town to Moscow and appoint a Commissar.  This is just plain idiotic.

They harmed no one, leave them alone.

 Why must a bunch of like minded people who want to pray together become a club?

Exit Question:  If they were Muslims, would the school have cared?  Would it have dared to force them to become a “club”?