Judge excuses administrators in prayer case
PENSACOLA (AP) – A lunch prayer given by a rural Panhandle athletic director and requested by the school’s principal didn’t violate a federal court order against praying at school events, a judge ruled Thursday.
The two men had faced up to six months in jail and $5,000 in fines for violating a 2008 settlement agreement of a lawsuit against the Santa Rosa County District.
The agreement prohibited school officials from praying or promoting prayer at school events and district officials admitted a long-standing culture of promoting Christianity at the rural northern Panhandle high school.
Thursday evening’s decision in favor of Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and Athletic Director Robert Freeman was greeted with a roar of approval followed by rounds of religious hymns from the hundreds of protesters who had stood outside the Pensacola Federal Court House for the daylong trial.
Lay teared up as he addressed the crowd late Thursday.
“Above all I want to thank my chief counsel, God our father,” he said to thunderous applause.
In a lengthy speech before announcing her decision, Rodgers said she did not believe the two men intended to violate her order against praying at school-sponsored events.
But Rodgers admonished Lay saying that he had an additional responsibility as the school principal to ensure her order was followed.
“At the time the school board admitted liability, your school was at the center of the controversy. You said that you agreed these actions had to stop and you agreed to the injunction. You had a responsibility to this court, to the school board and to the citizens of Santa Rosa County as the highest-ranking official at that school,” she said.
Rodgers also questioned videotaped comments made by Lay, who is also a Baptist church deacon, at a church rally for the school. Lay told the crowd that he could not “park my religion and leave it in the school parking lot like I do my Jeep, it will ooze out of me.”
However, she said that because praying was something that had been done at the school for 20 years, she accepted that Lay made a mistake by asking Freeman to offer the prayer and did not intend to violate her order. And Rodgers ruled that Freeman was simply following orders from his superior.
She also took into account that Lay had followed the court’s order at earlier events and not offered prayers in settings when he had typically offered prayers in the past.