By Fred Jackson and Ed Thomas
September 29, 2006

(AgapePress) - The ACLU has gone on the attack again against prayer on school property, this time in Tennessee. At the same time, a Muslim group in Virginia says schools should examine their policies to see that they accommodate the religious needs of Muslim students.

The Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit claiming that Wilson County school officials promote prayer and other religious activities. According to an Associated Press report, the ACLU claims that a group called "The Praying Parents" meets monthly in Lebanon's Lakeview Elementary School cafeteria to pray for the school, faculty, staff, and children.

The suit claims "The Praying Parents" are endorsed in the school newsletter, their flyer is distributed to students, and group members enter classrooms to inform students that the group is praying for them. The ACLU says it is suing "to protect religious freedom."

Lakeview's principal insists the parents group neither comes in contact with students nor prays with them. In previous court cases involving prayer on school property, the only consistent prohibition has been in the area of school employees initiating prayer activity.

A spokesman for a First Amendment law firm contends that the ACLU may be stretching it a bit by saying "The Praying Parents" is a violation of the Establishment Clause. Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the Center for Law & Policy, says he believes the presence of parents on campus for their group does not alone constitute a violation.

"There's every good secular reason to allow well-intended parents to come in and do what they think is a public good by praying over classrooms, and praying for students' protection, for example, while they're at school during the hours that the schools are open," says Crampton. "So I think it's a very defensible, very winnable case for the school."

Meanwhile, a Virginia-based Muslim group says it has launched a campaign to visit middle and high schools to review policies for accommodating what it calls "the religious needs" of Muslim students during Ramadan and throughout the year. The move comes after a high school in Burke, Virginia, agreed to compromise its policy on what students must wear during gym class. It says it will now allow a female Muslim student to wear Islamic attire in those classes instead of the required gym shorts.

According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the girl was threatened with failing the class if she did not wear shorts. CAIR's Maryland and Virginia chapter says it is making plans to conduct "diversity training" for newer staff members at the Burke school.

There is no word yet whether the ACLU will launch a lawsuit against the school accommodation of the Islamic student.