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November 9, 2009

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Prayer at graduations revisited

Friday, June 29, 2001 | 11:26 a.m.

Clark County School District attorneys want to change a policy on prayer at high school graduations, but district officials said it appears no schools are having prayer at commencements.

While reviewing district policies, Bill Hoffman, the school district's lead attorney, suggested the current policy allowing prayer at graduations be changed.

"I don't know of anybody who is doing it, to be honest," Hoffman said this morning, following Thursday's School Board meeting. He added that the change would be a preventive measure to avoid potential lawsuits.

School District spokeswoman Mary Stanley-Larsen reviewed about a dozen graduation programs this morning and found no reference to prayer.

Hoffman said he is basing his concern on a ruling in June 2000 by the U.S. Supreme Court that banned prayer in the Santa Fe Independent School District in Texas.

The Clark County School District's current policy states that invocations or benedictions are allowed at graduation ceremonies if it is agreed upon by a majority of the graduating class and the school principal.

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