(JTA) — More than 100 students at a West Virginia public high school staged a walkout Wednesday to protest their forced attendance at a Christian prayer assembly during the school day.
Among the students were young Jews who were told they might not leave the proselytizing event. The school says the incident was a teacher error.
Bethany Felinton told Associated Press that her Jewish son was told he might not leave the assembly, held at Huntington High School last week.
“It’s a completely unfair and unacceptable situation to put a teenager in,” Felinton said. “I am not criticizing your faith, but there is a time and a place for everything, and in public schools, during the school day, that is not the time or the place.”
An evangelical Christian preacher who urged students to commit to Christianity spoke at the event, which took place during a daily period set aside for study, prayer or optional guest speakers, students told AP. The event was organized by a group called Fellowship of Christian Athleteswhich organizes Christian prayer in schools and communities across the United States and beyond.
A spokesperson for the Cabell County School District told AP that the assembly was supposed to be voluntary, but that two teachers had mistakenly taken all of their classes.
“It’s unfortunate that it happened,” spokesman Jedd Flowers said. “We don’t think it will happen once more.”
It is the second high-profile incident in days alleging Christian teaching in public schools, which by law are supposed to be non-sectarian. A Jewish mother in Chattanooga, Tennessee, alleged that a teacher in a Bible class there had offered instruction on “how to torture a Jew.” That class, operated by a nonprofit organization called Bible in the Schoolspurports to be nonsectarian, officials there said.
Max Nibert, a senior at Huntington High School who participated in the walkout there, told AP that the event was a violation of the separation of church and state.
“I don’t think any type of religious official should be housed in a taxpayer-funded building for the express purpose of trying to convince minors to get baptized following school hours,” Nibert said.
From the translation (c)Jewish Link Mexico
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