Michigan Forbids Religious Teachings, Prayers in Public Schools

Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley informed state school authorities today that students were prohibited from conducting any religious exercises, including prayer recitation and Bible reading, on public school property during regular school hours.

In a guideline based on U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the First Amendment to the Constitution, the state’s chief legal officer said, however, that a strictly voluntary program of student prayer or other religious exercises was permissible, if it did not take place during regular school hours. Mr. Kelley said that the guideline, which was presented to Alexander Kloster, acting state superintendent of instruction, was “an expression of legal conclusions and not a statement of the personal views of the present Attorney General.”

Branch Hebrew and religious schools being held in suburban public schools will not be affected by the legal opinion which specifically stated that “a board of education may make school buildings available during off-school hours for religious instruction classes, so long as the school’s authority is not used to get students to attend classes.” The guideline also noted that religious courses as part of a secular program of education were “not prohibited when presented objectively.”

Religious holidays may be observed, the guideline declared, if the emphasis was “on what unites rather than what divides” — if school recognition of them was slanted toward teaching about their origin, rather than toward indoctrination. No religious instruction or ceremony may be held to celebrate a religious holiday, the guideline declared, adding that symbols of religious holidays may be used only for educational purposes and to promote the understanding of their significance.