I had to skim here...this thread is cumbersome indeed, so I apologize if this is redundant.

The law *should* protect a childs right to *choose* to pray here in the US. But the sad fact is that more and more people are getting the "Separation of Church and State" thing confused. It was intended to keep the state out of religion, not the other way around.

In any case, the law should protect a child's right to pray. However, there has been case after case where Valedictorians wanted to mention their faith, or pray during their commencement speach and were told they could not. Case after case of a child choosing Jesus as his "hero" for an essay, and being told he or she could not. Many of these have gone to trial *after* said event could occur, effectively blocking the child from exercising his or her (supposedly) constitutional rights.

There should not be a state mandated religion...but to banish all religion from schools is not only wrong, it's against the very reason this country was founded. Freedom of religion. The founders of this country never intoned "except in school".

Here's a link for more information: http://www2.oneplace.com/Ministries/Jay_Sekulow_Live/