Beginning class in Public School with a prayer. Is it a violation of separation of church and state?

Public School shouldn’t start every morning with a Christian prayer, even if it is led by the teacher and is not mandatory for every student in the class. Where is the line between religious freedom and religious imposition? Students may be forced to do it because they feel confused or think they can be excluded for the rest of their classmates, so undoubtedly this case would violate the separation of church and state.

Teachers and students have their rights if they want to speak about religion matters (First Amendment, free speech) but teachers can’t allow students to pray out loud or with a group. If they allow Christian students to pray, they must to do the same with Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist students,... The United States is a diverse nation with people who follow many different faiths and all of them can’t be represented in the started of the classes.

Teachers should not defend just one religion in their classes and should keep out of it. Teachers’ work is to teach their corresponding field, they are not responsible for teaching students to pray. This work belongs to the parents who are the real responsible of it. Students can pray in Churches or at home with their families.

There is a time and a place for everything, and Public School is no one of them. If a family really wants that their children pray at school, they should look for a specific school, a private school which share their religion. But if they want to keep their children in a public school, they must to respect to the rest of the people who have different religious ideology, such as they want to be respected.

Beginning class with a Christian prayer - violation of the separation of church and state?

First of all I agree with the objection of the non-Christian parents. Although it’s most probably a harmless violation of the Amendment that regards the separation of church and state the teacher shouldn’t include the Christian prayer in school. Even though the students can choose whether to participate or sit quietly, the prayer affects all of them who sit in class. I mean isn’t this way an unconscious intake of the information?

Secondly, the teacher projects her belief on the students which is partly also not correct because America claims to be a country that encourages the freedom to follow your own religion.

What the school could do is to offer a religious class as additional subject in case some parents would like the idea. That is how the school system used to be when I went to school and I think it is a good solution.

Violation of the separation of church and state? (Illinois)

"A school in Illinois instituted a daily prayer, every morning, which thanked God for the day and asked for support, but which didn't mention a specific god or religion."

In my opinion It violates the separation of church and state since it's a public school and I assume it's part of the government. The school shouldn't force the students to pray or to have any religion. It's a personal decision. Even if the prayers didn't mention any specific religion, it's still related to religion. People should have the chance to choose any religion they want, even if they choose not to have a religion. The school is not giving this choice for the students.

Violation of the separation of church and state? (Arizona)

In my opnion, this case is definetelyviolation of separation of church and state.
Once a law is enacted, People's rights are affected by it.
People are eligible for enjoying the freedom of religion and separation of state and church
without any pressure like goverment interference or others's oppression.
If students felt they were praying under teacher's pressure and the teacher used his authority to make students pray,
It could be said that it is an intrusion into what is supposed to be the separation of state and church.

Violation of the separation of church and state? (Arizona)

To my mind, this case definitely violates the separation of church and state since this procedure is based on a governmental decision. The children at school are told to pray or to mediate before their classes start. This means that the students are in a way forced to do so and even the ones that are undenominational must pray.
It remains questionable whether these regulations are stipulated by the school itself or by the government. If the latter is the case, the separation of church and state would clearly be violated because the government would directly interfere with the school's decisions. On the other hand, if it was a school internal decision, it may appear not to be a violation but in a wider sense it is because in the end, everything happens on a public school.

Occupy Wallstreet Interview Project.

Occupy Philadelphia started on October 6th at 9:00 am at City Hall and it was originally inspired by the wall street protest in New York.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Philadelphia)
The majority of protestors are unemployed or students who see little hope for the future.
They have been demonstrating against corporate greed.
They call themselves the 99 percent and their main grievance is the fact that the richest 1 percent of Americans control 49 percent of the wealth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_are_the_99%25)
Blue-collar workers,people from jthe middle class and a few of the rich protest against wasteful distributionof wealth and against the government's support for the wealthy 1% in the US.
In other words, They pitch their tents and do sit-in to fight peacefully for their right of equal financial treatment as we already discussed in our class.(https://www.change.org/petitions/do-not-evict-the-occupy-philadelphia-protesters)
What we found suprising was that even very young children,homeless and adults participated in the protest.
In addition to that,there was a little library for kids. We realized how peacefully this protest is going on. Nevertheless,People seemed absolutely determined in what they do.

" Working hard for the American dream is hardly working. The government should invest in education, infrastructure, basic
reaserch for the poverty, not tax breaks for billianaires."
"If Individuals can be arrested, so can corporations. They don't deserve it."
'It is unfair. We am working all the time and so what have we done wrong?"
When we asked them what these protests were for, They said.
It doesn't seem that these protests end in a short time.(http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.ssf/2011/10/post_39.html)
We doubt they solve America's deep problem.
but at the very least,we believe this movement is generating A much needed discussion of wealth.
They show that they fight not only for the human rights , but also for the American values praised by the government itself.

Occupy Philadelphia

More than 4 millions of layoffs and an economy controlled by bankers and corporations have led the protest movements that multiply at times in the U.S. Protests are already in lots of cities, and in Philadelphia they decided to camp out, give tents and foods to the people and walk with banners against corporate greedy people.

Last Friday we went to the City Hall and found different kinds of people as homeless people, students, volunteers and curious people like us. Protesters mentioned some reasons but most important reason is for a change of the current system and the inequality of wealth.

“We are the 99 percent”, a homelesswoman said. She doesn’t believe that her life can be changed. She came here 2 weeks ago and is in one of the tents of the City Hall. Why? to protest? No, It’s only because she has nothing and they are providing a shelter and food.

A student of Temple University gave us strong reasons, she said: “I am here because we need a fede

ral and local changes. I want a basic health, free college education and a job. It is the time to change the current system”.

Joe, a volunteer, has own reasons to be there, he is a disabled person and claims: “People with disabilities are entitled to better jobs and opportunities, a high percent of us are unemployed. We want national health care as you hav

e it in your countries like Spain and Korea. Capitalism caused the big problem of disparity”.

The occupation in Philly is a representation of what is happening all across the US as the people are starting to realize and protests against the hard conditions they are living in.

These people, who claim to be the "99 percent", are comparing themselves against the wealthiest people of the population, which represents only 1 percent of the population. They are not looking for the American Dream, they just want to protect

their rights and have fair conditions, free education, health care and changes in taxes. In summary, the US which lots of people consider it the best country in the world is proving that it is not capable of giving its citizens the basic needs to live, and people started to protest for retrieving their basic rights which are repressed by 1% people.