Students have right to pray

Sen. Parley Hellewell, R-Orem, was recently complaining about students allegedly being prevented from individually saying grace over their lunch in school cafeterias and not being able to write essays about Jesus Christ. Using those as examples, he proposes a law to allow more religion in schools.

He misapprehends the current state of the law. If an individual student is prevented from saying grace or from writing about Christ, the teacher, principal or school is violating the law and should be sued.

What is currently prohibited is state encouragement, endorsement or sponsorship of religion or religious exercises in schools. That is much different from one student saying grace or choosing Christ as a hero for a school writing assignment.

Brian M. Barnard

Salt Lake City