SUNDAY, JUNE 5, 2016

Solicitor
FROM PAGE 1

Supreme Court, the ruling that invocations and

benedictions authorized by
a government policy, that
take place on government
property and at government sponsored school related events, such as graduation ceremonies in public
schools, violate the Establishment Clause of the First
Amendment, was also reaffirmed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the
highest federal appellate
court governing Pennsylvania.
The brief also supported
arguments that non-religious students and parents should not be asked
to simply allow the prayer
to occur.
The (U.S. Supreme)
court noted that in its previ-

Prayer
FROM PAGE 1

sentiments were genuinely

expressed and beautifully
worded. I apologize for my
harsh reaction to his words
and will do my best to use
this as a life lesson for the
time I have remaining.
The email Rabinowitz
authored was sent last
year to Superintendent
Shellie Feola and Assistant Superintendent William Shirk, and subsequently shared with the
rest of the school board
at that time.
In that email, in addition to making the argument that making a place
for prayer in the schoolsponsored graduation
was a violation of the
Constitution, Rabinowitz also called (Bernard)
Steyaerts invocation obnoxious and a blatantly
Christian prayer.
PCT V has since uploaded its video of the
2015 graduation ceremony onto YouTube and
The Mercury has transcribed both the invo-

THE MERCURY

ous decisions it recognized

that prayer exercises in
public schools carry a particular risk of indirect coercion and [w]hat to most
believers may seem nothing
more than a reasonable request that the nonbeliever
respect their religious practices, in a school context
may appear to the nonbeliever or dissenter to be an
attempt to employ the machinery of the State to enforce a religious orthodoxy,
wrote the solicitor.
Some Pottsgrove residents have alternatively
suggested that the matter
should just be left up to the
students, but apparently
the courts have shut down
that path as well in a 1996
New Jersey case very similar to Pottsgroves situation, according to the brief.
The school board had a
longstanding tradition of
including a nonsectarian
invocation and benediction

Bernards
sentiments
were genuinely
expressed and
beautifully
worded. I
apologize for my
harsh reaction to
his words.
Rick Rabinowitz, Pottsgrove
School Board President

Online: For video of

last years Pottsgrove
Graduation invocation and
links to transcriptions of
both the invocation and
benediction, visit
POTTSMERC.COM

cation and benediction

from that ceremony and
posted them online to enable readers to see the full
text of both.
In that invocation, Steyaert said: Lord, we pray
for humility in the presence of a God worthy of
all praise. Lord, we come
now as a marred people.
Underneath this cap and
gown and all the glamour we cover ourselves

in high school graduation

ceremonies. The prayers
were delivered by local
clergy on a rotating basis
in an attempt to afford different denominations the
opportunity to be represented, according to the
summary of the case prepared by Davis.
However, after the Supreme Courts decision in
Lee, the school board, in a
good faith attempt to comply with Lee, decided to reconsider the tradition and
adopted a policy instead,
wrote Davis, who earlier
had noted that Pottsgrove
has no policy at all regarding invocation and benediction at graduation.
The policy the board
adopted stated that the
board of education, administration and staff of
the schools shall not endorse, organize or in any
way promote prayer at
schools functions and puwith is an imperfect sinful person. We pray for
forgiveness in all our
shortcomings and faults
in your eyes. Lord, give
us the humility to repent
for our flaws against you
and against each other.
He ended by saying:
We pray for steadfast devotion to you in the face
of temptation. Give us
clean hearts and minds
to make the choices that
honor you, regardless of
what the world demands
from us. Give us strength
to stand in the face of adversity in the world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Both Steyaert and Samantha Morgan, who gave
the benediction at the end
of the ceremony, used the
phrase Dear Heavenly Father at the start.
Last month, the topic
hit the headlines when
former school board president Justin Valentine
posted a link to an article
about students at an Ohio
high school who spontaneously stood and recited the
Lords Prayer, as had been
school tradition until, like
in Pottsgrove, it had been
deemed unconstitutional.

pils in attendance must

choose to have prayer conducted, which must be performed by a student volunteer and may not be conducted by a member of the
clergy or staff, according
to the brief.
The policy also permitted
the students to decide how
they would determine what
form of prayer, if, any would
be given at graduation, so
long as the process was conducted by elected class officers and the survey provides
pupils with an opportunity
to choose prayer, a moment
of reflection or nothing at
all, David wrote.
Students voted the next
day and 128 students
voted for prayer, 120 for
reflection/ moment of silence and 20 students for
neither to occur. Students
then volunteered to deliver
the prayer and senior class
officers selected a student
from among the volunValentine, a minister at
the Kingdom Life Church
in Pottstown, said he
hoped the tradition of an
invocation and benediction at Pottsgrove would
continue.
However, in a legal
brief made public Thursday, solicitor Marc Davis wrote that any kind
of formal programmatic
prayer at the districts
June 15 graduation would
violate the Establishment clause of the First
Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.
No doubt all these elements of the discussion,
and more, will be on the
table for a special school
board meeting to be held
on Tuesday, June 7 at 7:30
p.m. in the high school cafeteria to discuss the matter further.
And some may consider
the matter of prayers absence from the graduation
ceremony moot given that
Pottsgrove students have
stepped forward to organize their own baccalaureate ceremony beginning
at 7 p.m. on June 13 at the
Pottsgrove Middle School
auditorium.

teers, David wrote.

But even with those accommodations, the courts
said no.
First, the court found
that the policy allowed the
128 seniors who wanted
verbal prayer at graduation to impose their will
upon 140 of their fellow
classmates who did not.
The court found this was
impermissible because
the individual freedom of
conscience protected by
the First Amendment embraces the right to select
any religious faith or none
at all, Davis wrote.
The court found that
[a]n impermissible practice can not be transformed
into a constitutionally acceptable one by putting a
democratic process to an
improper use. The electorate as a whole, whether by
referendum or otherwise,
could not order [governmental] action violative of

| LOCAL NEWS | 5
A

the [Constitution], Davis

wrote.
Whether this will answer questions raised in
the community, or raise
more, remains unknown.
However, it remains
likely that the brief will
be cited frequently during a special June 7 meeting scheduled specifically
to allow public discussion
of the issue.
The meeting begins at
7:30 p.m. and will be held
in the high school cafeteria.
In the meantime, students have organized a baccalaureate ceremony for
those interested in ensuring
that prayer will be a part of
their graduation experience.
It will be held on June
13, two days before graduation.
It will be held from 7 to
8:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Pottsgrove Middle
School on North Hanover
Street.

PHILLY

Cyclists to
take part in
cycling classic
The Associated Press

Bicyclists will
be hitting the road Sunday with
spectators lining the roads to
cheer them on in the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic.
The 12.3-mile route runs from
the city through Manayunk, Roxborough, East Falls, Fairmount
Park and Lemon Hill, beginning
and ending at the infamous steep
Manayunk Wall.
Eighteen teams are scheduled to compete in the mens
110.7-mile race beginning at 8
a.m. Sunday. Nineteen teams
will take part in the womens
73.8-mile race beginning at 12:30
p.m. Sunday.
Many road closures will be in
effect during the race, including
PHILADELPHIA >>

Eighteen teams
are scheduled to
compete in the
mens 110.7-mile
race beginning
at 8 a.m. Sunday.
Nineteen teams
will take part
in the womens
73.8-mile race
beginning at 12:30
p.m. Sunday.
the entire length of Kelly Drive
and the inner drive of Philadelphias Benjamin Franklin Parkway.