WYSIWYG: of course your concerns are legitimate, but it is also true that some (not all) Christian evengelical groups are very AGGRESSIVELY trying to infiltrate schools and recruit children to their way of thinking (some as young as 5). If Jewish or Muslim or (gasp!) Pagan groups tried to do what this group in question has done, I think the response (and resulting legislative deciison) would have been quite different.

Pagan and other groups who see this as a warcry to start their own prayer or study groups are approaching this in a wrongheaded way, I believe. This violates our separation of church and state and is therefore unacceptable, and THAT is what our response should be.

I am thinking of the 12 year old girl who committed suicide earlier this year because, as a pagan and aspiring witch, she was teased by her classmates, soem of whom sang Christian hymns to her in the hallways at school until she cried.

12 years old. Hung herself because she was teased because of her wacky, fringe religion.

If prayer is allowed in schools, all the religious diversity our communities have embraced will be destroyed, because in some areas, the dominant faith is Christianity, and allowing these religious activities to take place on school grounds sanctions and gives tacit approval to these parctices, and this will irrevocably alter the social fabric of those schools, such that kids who practice other, less mainstream, religions will feel left out, ashamed, threatened, or worse.

Peg