Commencement Prayers Banned by School Board

The Los Angeles Board of Education agreed Tuesday to prohibit prayers at high school graduations, clearing the way for dismissal of a lawsuit filed against the district by a Sherman Oaks atheist who feared his son’s graduation would be marred by a religious gesture.

Lawyers for James Brodhead said they plan to drop the lawsuit today after receiving written assurance that the district will not permit “any language or other behavior that constitutes a religious observance or practice” during commencements.

Brodhead’s son, Daniel, 17, who also is an atheist, will graduate June 18 from Van Nuys High School.

“Dan is, of course, just delighted he’ll have a religion-free graduation,” Brodhead said.

Earlier Incident

Brodhead, an actor, said he decided to file suit because there had been a prayer at his elder son’s graduation at the school two years ago and the principal declined to assure him that there would be none this year.

The lawsuit, filed May 22, sought an injunction prohibiting prayers during graduations at all district schools. A hearing had been scheduled for Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

District officials said they have permitted students or other speakers to deliver invocations without restrictions at graduations.

“We are very pleased because we feel now, in the second largest city in the United States, we have established a principle that atheists have as much a right to freedom from religion in a public place as religious people have to practice it,” Brodhead said.

Carol A. Sobel, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the suit for the Brodheads, said the settlement was worked out during two telephone conversations with district lawyers.

“I think the district has been fairly reasonable,” Sobel said. “That’s why I think we were able to come up with such a quick and easy settlement. The Los Angeles school district has a really strong concern for the separation of church and state.”

A spokesman for the district confirmed that the school board reached a decision to end the matter in a closed session.

Wording of Letter

Bill Rivera, assistant to Supt. Harry Handler, said the district sent Sobel a letter drafted by Howard Friedman, assistant legal adviser for the district, which says:

“In conformity with other district policies and procedures, the district will immediately notify the defendants . . . that in an invocation or similar message at a graduation ceremony of the district schools, the district will not permit, sanction or authorize any language or other behavior that constitutes a religious observance or practice and will so inform all graduation speakers in advance.”

Rivera said the new policy will still allow an invocation in the “generic” sense of offering thanks but would prohibit any reference to God.

He said the letter merely extends to the commencement existing district policy on religious messages at holiday programs during the school year.

In an earlier opinion that Van Nuys High School Principal Jane Godfrey showed Brodhead this spring, an attorney for the district had held that, because students largely plan their own graduation ceremonies and attendance is voluntary, the constitutionally dictated separation of church and state did not apply to the ceremonies.