Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 21, 1993 TAG: 9312210115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WILLIAM BOOTH THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: JACKSON, MISS. LENGTH: Medium
Thousands of students in 15 Mississippi counties, many with the support of their teachers and superintendents, have walked out of class in the past few weeks to protest court-mandated sanctions against school prayer.
Parents and students gathered at large rallies at the state Capitol to register their support for the soft-spoken and bespectacled principal of Wingfield High, Bishop Knox, who was relieved of his duties after allowing students to read the 21-word prayer that mentioned God, but not Jesus Christ.
Last week, after a volatile hearing before the Jackson School Board, Knox's termination was overturned, and instead the principal was suspended without pay until the next school year. Knox said Friday he is disappointed with the compromise decision and not certain he will return.
"When you get a man fired for allowing school prayer, people woke up to the fact that this is just plain wrong and we're not going to take it anymore," said Bobby Clanton, president of a conservative political action group here.
The prayer at Wingfield and sus- When you get a man fired for allowing school prayer, people woke up to the fact that this is just plain wrong and we're not going to take it anymore. Bobby Clanton political action group leader pension of Knox tapped into deep religious feelings here and anxieties over what many see as worsening conditions in the schools. Leaders of the protests say they are creating a potent coalition of whites and blacks to fight for the return of prayer. Religious and conservative groups around the country are watching to see what happens.
The furor was stoked by Gov. Kirk Fordice, a Republican who openly supported Knox. "Who says prayer in school is illegal?" said Fordice, declaring the last weeks' events in Mississippi to be "the start of a movement."
Fordice said the public sees a "jarring, shattering irony. . . . You've got every kind of blasphemy in schools - improper language, pistols, sexual conduct" - but no school prayer."
Many parents, students and teachers echoed Fordice's comments that schools here and around the country are "out of control" and that a simple prayer in the classroom may help bring back what Knox described as "a sense of decorum and order and an acknowledgment that something bigger than us exists, a creator."
Several Mississippi politicians are preparing to introduce bills supporting school prayer when the legislature reconvenes in January. State Sen. Mike Gunn said he will push to withhold state funds from any school district that bans prayer in the classroom.
"This law would not just encourage school prayer," Gunn said, "but punish schools that don't allow it."
School-sponsored prayer has been banned since 1962, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, saying it breaches the separation of church and state.
Even before the current furor in Mississippi, many schools here allowed or endorsed school prayer in the classroom, at Friday night football games, at graduation ceremonies and in Bible clubs.
"They're violating it left and right all over the state," said Lynn Watkins, director of the Mississippi American Civil Liberties Union. "We've got a lot of school boards that basically have concluded, `We don't care what the law is, we're going to have public prayer.' "
Billy Moss, superintendent of Jones County schools in south Mississippi, said prayer is common in his schools. Moss supported the students and teachers who walked out of class over the prayer ban.
"These students have rights, but sometimes we as adults forget about them," Jones said. "I don't want to go against the Constitution, but I think Dr. Knox is right."
Knox said he believes allowing his students to recite a short prayer over the school intercom was not only right, but legal. A recent ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, allowed student-initiated, student-led, nonsectarian, nonproselytizing prayer at public school graduations.
Knox said he was approached by students who wanted to recite a prayer over the intercom. The school put the issue to a student vote, and prayer won, 490-96. The prayer was written and read by students. The prayer was read for three days before Knox was suspended for insubordination by his superior, Jackson School Superintendent Ben Canada.
Knox said he was satisfied that the prayer met the requirements of the 5th Circuit ruling. The principal, a Christian, said a short prayer at the beginning of the school day "sets the tone" and "gives a sense of purpose."
Adam Watson, 14, who walked out three times at Wingfield High in support of prayer and KInox, said, "We didn't even hear the prayer until the third day because all the kids were talking.
by CNB