Mississippi school district fined $7500 for opening assembly with prayer

Allowing a school assembly honoring high-achievers to
open with a prayer made one Mississippi school district
$7,500 poorer - and a student who sued $2,500
richer. The Rankin, Miss., public school district was hit with the fine after U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves said it
defied his prior order barring prayers school events.

According to the judge, the prayer violated a 2013 court settlement that ordered the district to stop
"proselytizing Christianity." The alleged violation, which
came at an assembly last year for students who scored above 22 on their ACT college admissions test, prompted the judge to apply fines for that and another incident, in which Gideons International was permitted to hand out Bibles to elementary school students.

"The district's breach did not take very long and it
occurred in a very bold way," Reeves wrote in his
judgment. "Its conduct displays that the district did not
make any effort to adhere to the agreed judgment."
Reeves also ordered the district to pay the student's
legal fees, an amount that will be determined at a later
date, and threatened a $10,000 fine for any future
infractions of the order.

The assembly at Brandon High School in May 2014
began with a prayer led by local Methodist pastor Rev.
Rob Gill. Although not mandatory, the assembly honored the district's students who scored higher than a 22 on their ACT college tests

The school district first came under legal fire when the
same student took the school district and the school's
then-principal, Charles Frazier, to court in 2013 for
forcing him to attend a series of assemblies that
promoted Christianity.

Attorneys for the school district have argued that Gill's
prayer did not violate the 2013 orders or the student's
First Amendment rights because attendance at the
assembly was optional. Reeves, however, believes the
district has been trying to indoctrinate students with
Christianity.

“From the accounts detailed in the record, it appears
that incorporating religious script and prayers with
school activities has been a long-standing tradition of
the district,” the judge argued.

In a statement issued by an attorney, Rankin County
Superintendent Lynn Weathersby said that despite the
court's ruling, students and teachers will continue to
pray. However, district staff will have to adjust in order
to comply with the ruling.