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Alabama school district agrees to stop prayers over PA system at football games

By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

No prayers: An Alabama school district will no longer allow prayers to be broadcast over the PA systems during high school football games. (HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Officials from an Alabama school district have agreed to stop prayers broadcast over the public address system before prep football games, authorities said.

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The move comes after the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a complaint to the Jefferson County School District last fall, calling the prayers unconstitutional, WIAT-TV reported.

The organization’s attorney, Chris Line, sent a letter to school officials in September 2021 objecting to the practice at Gardendale High School and Pinson Valley High School in Jefferson County, according to AL.com. Line called prayers before a game “inapporpriate and unconstitutional,” according to a news release.

The two schools are located near Birmingham.

The letter was written after a parent complained to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, saying that their child felt uncomfortable when schools in the district played a Christian prayer over the loudspeaker. The parents added that their child did not know whether to stand with the other students and pretend to be Christian or remain seated and risk scrutiny from his peers, Line said, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

“It really put him in a tough spot,” Line said. “Not a situation that a public school should be putting one of their students in.”

The Supreme Court has struck down school-sponsored prayer in public schools in several cases dating to 1962.

Birmingham attorney Samantha K. Smith sent a letter to the Freedom From Religion Foundation on March 14, AL.com reported.

“The Superintendent met with school principals and the administration will not allow prayer at school-sponsored events, including football games,” Smith wrote, according to the website.

Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Walter B. Gonsoulin Jr. and the county board of education issued a statement that the complaint was resolved at the school level, WBRC-TV reported.

“That resolution was based on the board’s legal obligations that have been established by binding court precedent,” Gonsoulin said in the statement. “However, the board’s adherence to those rulings should not be understood as a rejection of students’ religious rights and liberties in the school setting. The Jefferson County Board of Education remains firmly committed to respecting and protecting those rights and liberties in every way permitted by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”


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