Pensacola, USA - A lunch prayer given by an athletic director and requested by the school's principal didn't violate a federal court order against praying at school events, a judge has ruled.
The two men had faced up to six months in jail and $5,000 in fines for violating a 2008 settlement agreement of a lawsuit against the Santa Rosa County District. The agreement prohibited school officials from praying or promoting prayer at school events, and district officials admitted a long-standing culture of promoting Christianity at the rural northern Panhandle high school.
The decision in favor of Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman was greeted with a roar of approval by protesters outside the Pensacola Federal Court House.
U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers said before announcing her decision that she did not believe the two men intended to violate her order against praying at school-sponsored events. But Rodgers admonished Lay saying that he had an additional responsibility as the school principal to ensure her order was followed.
"At the time the school board admitted liability, your school was at the center of the controversy. You said that you agreed these actions had to stop and you agreed to the injunction. You had a responsibility to this court, to the school board and to the citizens of Santa Rosa County as the highest-ranking official at that school," she said.
She said that because praying was something that had been done at the school for 20 years, she accepted that Lay made a mistake by asking Freeman to offer the prayer and did not intend to violate her order.