If one student at Washington Community High School is deprived of his or her constitutional rights, then that takes precedence over the rights of the majority. The ruling came on the heels of a suit filed in District Court by school senior Natasha Appenheimer with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union. Commencement prayer has been a tradition at the high school since the first graduation ceremony was held there in 1921. Until about ten years ago, a member of the clergy conducted an invocation. Officials at Washington Community High School expressed disappointment at yesterday's ruling, and insisted that their involvement with the graduation prayer was minimal.
Faculty does participate, though, in editing and vetting the speeches.
Judge McDade found that to be sufficient grounds for granting the temporary injunction. The court is expected to issue a written decision within a week regarding a permanent injunction, according to the Peoria Journal-Star newspaper. Most of the schools are religious, or affiliated with sectarian groups. Wednesday's action also means that the voucher controversy is likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court which so far has seemed reluctant to take up the matter. A staff attorney for the Institute for Justice, a pro-voucher legal group based in Washington, D.C., said that a petition to the high court will be filed within 90.