On Friday August 25th when fans showed up to the annual football game between Opelika High School and Smiths Station High School they did not know that nearly a month later we would still be talking about it not for what happened during the game, but what happened before.
On this particular Friday night, just like it had been for many years, a student-led prayer was said over the public address system prior to kickoff. However there was one fan who did not think that this was appropriate for a public school environment. On August 31st the Superintendent of Lee County schools received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation citing several Supreme Court decisions that stated that it was not legal to have public prayers read over a public address system at any school sponsored event. After the letter was received, the school system responded on September 11th with a letter informing all area high schools not to broadcast any type of prayer over the public address system at school sponsored football games.
On September 19th Smiths Station responded via a post on their Athletics Facebook page stating that a group of students will begin holding a pregame prayer line. The post states that this will take place starting Friday October 13th at the game versus Enterprise High School. This prayer will not be broadcast over any public address system but will take place in the end-zone with players and cheerleaders inside a fence while parents and anyone wanting to take part standing outside the fence. As of publication of this article neither the FFRA or the Lee County School Board has made any statement on this prayer display.
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