Monday, June 30, 2003 | 9:30 a.m.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has dropped a federal lawsuit challenging the Clark County School District's stance on prayer at graduation ceremonies.
The decision came after ACLU officials approved an internal school district memo telling school administrators to review student speeches for school-sponsored activities to make sure a speech does not contain a prayer or other potentially objectionable language.
The ACLU dropped the lawsuit Thursday without prejudice, which means the ACLU can revive the suit at any time.
"But as long as they have that policy, it ensures there won't be improper prayer or proselytizing," ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein said.
"The case was settled because the district issued a directive to all principals telling them that they needed to take responsibility and review these speeches to make sure that there is no prayer," Lichtenstein said.
The school district memo dated April 21 says: "When an administrator reviews student speech, she will substantially control the speech by ensuring that it does not contain speech which interferes with the educational process, is lewd, profane, threatening, proselytizing or constitutes prayer."
The memo followed up an April 10 decision by the School Board to ban organized prayer at school-sponsored events such as graduations. There were many objections by residents of the district and some board members, who said the board also needed to affirm that religious expression by individual speakers would not be stifled.
Under the April 10 regulation, organized prayer such as invocations or benedictions were forbidden. But the school district dropped its policy of reviewing all speakers' comments prior to an event, and said an individual's remarks would not be considered attributable to the school and would be exempt from the regulation.
The April 21 memo said: "A neutral disclaimer does not absolve the administrator of the responsibility to review and monitor the speech."
School Board President Sheila Moulton said Friday she was glad to hear the ACLU dropped the lawsuit because it means the district will not have to spend the money to fight the ACLU in court.
Moulton said that although the April 21 memo might clarify district procedures, it did not change the common practices at schools, Moulton said.
"The policy wasn't changed because the ACLU made us do it," she said. "We've always reviewed student speeches and will continue to do so."
The ACLU filed the lawsuit in March, saying that the School Board's refusal to to ensure that there are no prayers at graduation ceremonies violated the First and 14th amendments.
The board had previously banned prayers, but said that they were not responsible for what students might say at school events as part of their right to private speech.
That stance was out of line with recent rulings handed down by both the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, Lichtenstein said.
District officials said their regulations about graduation prayers were based on guidance from the U.S. education secretary, but the ACLU countered that the district should be basing its policy on legal decisions, not mandates from federal education officials.
The ACLU suit had asked the U.S. District Court to declare the district's prayer regulation unconstitutional.
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