Judge halts prayer at graduation ceremony

PEORIA, Illinois (AP) -- A federal judge has barred student prayer at a suburban high school graduation Sunday, marking the first time in the school's 80-year history that a prayer will not be offered during the ceremony.

Chief District Judge Joe B. McDade issued the temporary restraining order Thursday against Washington Community High School in a lawsuit filed a day earlier by school senior Natasha Appenheimer and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The judge said he will set a date next week for another hearing that could result in a permanent injunction against prayer at Washington's ceremonies.

School district officials defended the prayer on grounds that students, not administrators, were in charge of graduation and tailored the ceremony themselves.

School officials also said the invocation and benediction at Sunday's ceremony were to be given by the only student who volunteered to pray.

McDade said graduation is held on school grounds with school resources, making prayer at the ceremony unconstitutional.

"A school can't delegate to students, can't license students, to do what it cannot do," he said.

Washington school Superintendent Lee Edwards said graduation programs have been ordered, so officials will have to announce before the ceremony that the court has barred them from holding the invocation and benediction.

Edwards said he will consult the school board before about whether to fight the decision.

"Naturally, I'm disappointed in the decision and the end of an 80-year tradition at Washington High School," he said.

Appenheimer, who testified that she heard prayers at the previous three graduations, told the court she was opposed to anyone praying on her behalf. She said she was pleased by the ruling.

"We feel the courts certainly upheld my rights as an individual," said Appenheimer, who wore a cross and other symbols of Christianity.

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