College Students Suspended for Praying: Case Settled, Questions Remain

Religious freedom under assault:

The Peralta Community College District has settled a federal lawsuit over its punishment of two College of Alameda students who were praying on campus. The four-college district will pay $90,000 in legal fees to students Kandy Kyriacou and Ojoma Omaga, who were threatened with suspension after they prayed in class and after Kyriacou prayed with a sick instructor in the teacher’s office….

Public agencies and schools are supposed to remain neutral when it comes to religion, said UC Berkeley law professor Rachel Moran, who is a visiting professor at UC Irvine this year. However, it remains unclear whether that means public schools should be more or less restrictive about allowing prayer on campus, she said.

[From Peralta settles lawsuit over student prayer – San Jose Mercury News]

Speak Up reports that the basis for the students’ suspension had been that they violated policy against

Disruptive or insulting behavior, willful disobedience, habitual profanity or vulgarity, or the open and persistent defiance of the authority of, refusal to comply with directions of, or persistent abuse of, college employees in the performance of their duty . . . .

This was (apparently) the form in which they practiced their “disruption, insulting, willful disobedience, habitual profanity or vulgarity, defiance of authority, and or persistent abuse:”

According to court documents, the students prayed with each other outside of class during class breaks, prayed silently to themselves in class, and on one occasion, engaged in a consensual and student-initiated prayer with an ill faculty member in her office.

More from the court documents:

The events giving rise to this dispute began on November 1, 2007. Kyriacou went to the office of her instructor, Sharon Bell, to discuss matters related to her class. (Bell shared this office with other instructors.) Eventually, their conversation turned to personal matters, and Kyriacou prayed with Bell after obtaining her consent. On December 12, 2007, Kyriacou again went to Bell’s shared office – this time to give her a Christmas gift. Upon learning that Bell was sick, Kyriacou said that she was sorry and offered to pray for Bell. When Bell bowed her head, Kyriacou began praying for her to get well.

While Kyriacou was praying for Bell, defendant Derek Piazza, another instructor, entered the office. Piazza interrupted the prayer, saying, “You can’t be doing that in here!” and Kyriacou ceased praying and left the office. Kyriacou then saw Omaga in the hall and was explaining to her what had happened when Piazza reappeared and said, “You can’t be doing that in there! That’s our office.” Omaga had not been in the office with Kyriacou and Bell, nor did she overhear the initial exchange with Piazza.

On December 22, 2007, both Kyriacou and Omaga received letters from defendant Kerry Compton, the Vice President of Student Services at the College. The letters notified plaintiffs of the College’s intent to suspend them from class, effective December 10, 2007.

Speak Up closes its article on the case,

But what is telling here is how far the College was willing to go to resist clearly protected speech and the reasons for its resistance. Engaging in a year and a half of litigation is not the reaction of a university welcoming of its students’ religious freedoms. Instead, its actions reveal a deep, unsettling hostility to religion that is all too prevalent at America’s institutions of higher education.

The court made the right decision. And yet there is still that chilling question raised by Rachel Moran:

It remains unclear whether that means public schools [note: the context is colleges, not primary or secondary schools] should be more or less restrictive about allowing prayer on campus.

What’s unclear about it?

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5 Responses

  1. Bilbo says:

    Fascinating. If I were a college student, I would be tempted to start praying in public on campus, just to see what happens.

  2. Bilbo says:

    In fact, even if I didn’t believe in God, I would be tempted to pray in public on campus, just to see what happens.

  3. Bilbo says:

    In fact, I’m tempted to enroll at a local college, just so I can pray in public on campus.

  4. Tom Gilson says:

    LOL!

    Temptations are meant to be resisted. But maybe not all of them.

  5. Bilbo says:

    Maybe it’s from growing up in the 60s. Let’s have a pray-in!