The school district claims the assembly was optional, but students weren’t allowed to leave the event.
On Wednesday, more than 100 students at Huntington High School in Huntington, West Virginia, staged a walkout to protest a school-sanctioned religious revival that some of their teachers required them to attend. Earlier this week, teachers told students that during a non-instructive class period called COMPASS, they had to go to an assembly where a Christian prayer revival was set to take place. At the assembly, teens were told to close their eyes, raise their arms in prayer and give their lives to Jesus Christ. They were also told that if they didn’t follow the Bible, they would go to hell after they died. According to reporting from The Associated Press, one student texted his parent, asking, “Is this legal?” The tenets of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — and a number of Supreme Court rulings — suggest that it was not. According to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, public schools cannot prevent students from expressing or sharing religious beliefs during school hours. However, school officials cannot impose prayer or other religious practices in the building, even if students are not required to take part; to do so constitutes a violation of students’ religious freedom.
