New York State Education Commissioner James E. Allen, Jr., sustained yesterday a complaint by nine parents that use of the fourth stanza of “America” as part of a devotional exercise in public schools was a violation of the Supreme Court bans on religious activities in such schools.
The nine parents, a cross-section of religious faiths in Levittown, L. I., had protested the opening exercise program adopted by the Levittown School District last September, after the June 1962 Supreme Court ruling which banned prescribed prayers in New York State public schools. The exercises included the stanza which begins “Our father’s God to Thee.” Dr. Allen said that the anthem could be sung, read or recited at patriotic or ceremonial occasions, but he formally set aside the Levittown board’s order as constituting “a daily religious exercise.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
