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When reading a column like this, most folks understand
that what they’re getting is the opinion of the writer. That’s one
of the reasons this feature is cleverly titled “Brent Morrison;” it
is about whatever happens to be on my mind at a given moment.
Another reason is that I couldn’t think of anything else.
Though I am not constrained by a reporter’s standard of
objectivity, I pride myself on getting my information straight. I
want my interpretation to be based on facts even if reality isn’t
always as I would have it. But I also feel a duty to you not to
blindly echo everything I hear or read.
So Oroville High School’s rejection of valedictorian
Chris Niemeyer’s graduation address and student Ferrin Cole’s
invocation due to religious content leaves me particularly
frustrated. Deadlines and timing did not enable me to reach the
school’s administration, and an attorney representing the young men
did not follow up on his promise to call me. What remains is media
accounts and a stack of questions.
For instance, why did Oroville High schedule an
“Invocation” if they did not want a prayer? Perhaps it is rash to
assume that the school owns any dictionaries, but someone there must
know what the word means. The judge who declined a temporary
restraining order to permit the prayer called this “foolish,” and I
would like to ask how the school might argue otherwise.
Then on Tuesday of graduation week, Oroville Union High School
District Superintendent Barry Kayrell reportedly gave the boys an
ultimatum to remove all religious references. He is quoted as
rejecting the speech and invocation because audience members might
be offended.
Yet this is the same Barry Kayrell I saw across town on the stage at
Las Plumas High School’s graduation two days later, a ceremony
replete with opening and closing prayers. Dr. Kayrell sat with his
head bowed during both, seemingly untroubled by the frequent
references to God and Jesus.
The question for Dr. Kayrell is obvious. Why he would pray with the
students at Las Plumas High on Thursday, having just denied those at
Oroville High the right to do so on Friday?
According to the media, Oroville High principal Larry Payne said
that though the school has no formal policy it cannot sanction
anything promoting a particular religious belief, and that he must
obey the Constitution. Could he and the school’s attorneys really
be unaware of a May 27 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, hardly a bastion of the Christian right, upholding a school
district’s authority to allow student prayer in graduation
speeches? Could he have not known that his district did exactly
that at Las Plumas?
Of course, this debate wouldn’t be complete without a few inane
comments from the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU attorney
Margaret Crosby told one paper that “Graduation is ... a situation
where every speaker is there by permission of the school, not the
cacophony of liberty.” I would remind Ms. Crosby that public
schools exist by permission of society, not vice versa. And I would
ask her to clarify how voluntary prayer is more cacophonous than at
least one favorite ACLU cause, the right of the American Nazi Party
to hold demonstrations in heavily Jewish communities.
I would oppose any attempt to mandate school prayer.
Forced mouthing of unfelt faith could produce nothing but
resentment. Fortunately, misguided rhetoric over a failed school
prayer amendment aside, I know of no such proposal.
I do know this: freedom of religion and speech are
meaningless unless permitted in public, on public property. Simply
put, confining the exercise of these rights to private property
places freedom solely in the hands of property owners.
The ACLU, Principal Payne, and the flexible Dr. Kayrell would most
likely deny any desire to resurrect property ownership as a
requirement for full membership in society. But their own list of
questions ought to include one on the predictable consequences of
distorting Constitutional truths.
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