DENVER (AP) - A teacher upset that his seventh-grade daughter will have to sit through a prayer at graduation filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the practice.
Sean Shields claims a student-led prayer set to be read at Plainview School graduation Saturday violates the First Amendment.
The federal lawsuit filed Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union on Shields' behalf seeks a temporary injunction to prevent the prayer and a trial to consider a permanent ban. It also seeks $2 in damages.
"It's overwhelming," said Shields, a math teachers at Plainview. "There is religion mixed into so much about the school. I'm just trying to curb it."
Shields said he and his family are atheists. "This area is mostly Christian, and that's why it's not a problem for anyone else at the school," Shields said.
According to the lawsuit, Christian prayers are regularly delivered at events and meetings sponsored and organized by the K-12 school, about 140 miles east of Denver.
Superintendent Johnny Holcomb said the district tries to comply with the First Amendment and the lawsuit was a surprise.