Update:
A federal judge has barred a central Indiana high school from holding a student-led prayer during its graduation ceremony later this month.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker late Friday issued a preliminary injunction against Greenwood High School, which had planned the prayer at its May 28 commencement.
The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana claimed the prayer and a senior class vote approving it unconstitutionally subjected religious practice to majority rule.
Barker's ruling says the vote to allow the prayer and the prayer itself violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
School district officials say they do not plan to appeal the ruling.
Previous story:
A federal judge will soon decide whether or not to allow a student prayer at a graduation in Greenwood. A high school senior filed suit against the school after it held a student vote approving a prayer during the ceremony.
Judge Sarah Evans Barker said that she would issue her decision before Eric Workman and his classmates graduate on May 28th.
Workman, Greenwood's top-rated senior, opted to stay in school Friday rather than go to federal court to hear the arguments in the case he filed against his school. Though Workman wasn't at today's hearing, his attorney's with the ACLU said their message was simple.
"We do not want the government interfering and mandating religious beliefs," said attorney Kenneth Falk.
Workman filed an injunction to stop the school prayer at the Greenwood High School graduation arguing that it violates the First Amendment protection of separation of church and state.
Judy Wood, attorney for Greenwood schools, argued that the First Amendment also must protect the freedom of speech of the majority of students who voted for the graduation prayer. The school created a ballot for students to vote on the issue earlier this year.
In court Friday, Judge Sarah Evans Barker verbally dismissed several of the arguments made by the school, saying at one point that the school had an "active hand" in raising the prayer issue by creating the ballot in the first place.
"This is prayer at graduation that was voted on by students who were given only one choice: either do we have prayer or do we not have prayer?" Falk said. "This is controlled by the school completely."
"We still don't know that there will be an unconstitutional prayer," Wood said. "Prayer can take many forms and not all forms are unconstitutional."
Wood says the school will abide by the judge's decision for the May 28th graduation. Until then, the ACLU says Workman wants to remain out of the spotlight.
"I think there has been some hostility directed towards him," Falk said. "I think he's doing fine though."
No matter who judge Barker sides with in her opinion, she says she hopes students and administrators in Greenwood use it as a teaching moment.
If judge
Barker grants the injunction, she says it would be directed at the school and effectively put a stop to the prayer. However, she says it would not restrict what students say in any of their speeches during the ceremony.
