Source: https://ffrf.org/faq/state-church/item/14029-prayer-in-public-school
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 22:38:35+00:00

Document:
-- The "godless" Pledge of Allegiance, as it was recited by generations of school children, before Congress inserted a religious phrase, "under God," in 1954.
Our public schools are for all children, whether Catholic, Baptist, Quaker, atheist, Buddhist, Jewish, agnostic. The schools are supported by alltaxpayers, and therefore should be free of religious observances and coercion. It is the sacred duty of parents and churches to instill religious beliefs, free from government dictation. Institutionalizing prayers in public schools usurps the rights of parents.
For nearly half a century, the United States Supreme Court, consistent with this nation's history of secular schools, has ruled against religious indoctrination through schools ( McCollum v. Board of Education , 1948), prayers and devotionals in public schools ( Engel v. Vitale , 1962) and prayers and bible-reading ( Abington School District v. Schempp , 1963), right up through the 1992 Weisman decision against prayers at public school commencements and Santa Fe v. Doe (2000) barring student-led prayers at public school events .
What About a Student Vote to Have Prayer?
McCollum v. Board of Education , 333 U.S. 203, 212 (1948).
Struck down religious instruction in public schools. The case involved school-sponsored religious instruction in which the sole nonreligious student, Jim McCollum, was placed in detention and persecuted by schoolmates in Champaign, Illinois.
Tudor v. Board of Education of Rutherford , 14 J.N. 31 (1953), cert. denied, 348 U.S. 816 (1954).
Let stand a lower court ruling that the practice of allowing volunteers to distribute Gideon Bibles at public school was unconstitutional.
Engel v. Vitale , 370 U.S. 421 (1962).
Declared prayers in public school unconstitutional.
Abington Township School District v. Schempp , 374. U.S. 203 (1963).
Declared unconstitutional devotional Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
Epperson v. Arkansas , 393 U.S., 97, 104 (1968).
Struck down state law forbidding schools to teach the science of evolution.
Stone v. Graham , 449 U.S. 39 (1980).
Declared unconstitutional the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
Wallace v. Jaffree , 472 U.S. 38 (1985).
Overturned law requiring daily "period of silence not to exceed one minute . . . for meditation or daily prayer."
Jager v. Douglas County School District , 862 F.2d 824 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1090 (1989).
Let stand a lower court ruling in Georgia that pre-game invocations at high school football games are unconstitutional.
Lee v. Weisman , 120 L.E. 2d 467/ 112 S.C.T. 2649 (1992).
Ruled prayers at public school graduations an impermissible establishment of religion.
Berger v. Rensselaer , 982 F.2d, 1160 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 124 L.E. 2d 254 (1993).
Let stand ruling barring access to Gideons to pass out bibles in Indiana schools.
Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe , 530 U.S. 290 (2000).
Barred student-led prayers at public school functions.
Written by Annie Laurie Gaylor. Copyright 1995 by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc.

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