Petition for Villa Park Commencement Prayer Rebuffed

A group of Villa Park High School seniors who petitioned the school board to allow a formal prayer at their commencement next week, despite objections from other students, have been rebuffed.

“I support them in principle, but I’m not going to get in the way of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,” Trustee Bill Lewis said.

The issue arose on Monday when students Sommer Mitchell and Sarah Yi told Trustee Martin Jacobson that they were circulating a petition, eventually signed by 272 of the 370 graduating seniors, and planned to submit it to the Orange Unified School District board at its meeting Thursday.

Trustees who said they favored a prayer at the graduation ceremony did some quick legal research. They learned that the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in 1994 that a non-sectarian prayer at commencement violated the U.S. Constitution.

In her presentation with Yi, Mitchell told the board members that students were upset because auxiliary graduation programs that traditionally accommodated religion, such as the baccalaureate, have been dropped over time.

During this milestone event in their lives, as they are surrounded by parents and relatives who have supported them, many students wanted to recognize their faith, Mitchell said.

“I could not have made it without God,” she said. “This would leave a big void for me.”

But another student followed Mitchell and Yi at the podium to protest.

“I personally would be offended if any mention of God was made at graduation,” senior Jessica Melugin said. “It’s a public school and I don’t believe it has any place in a public school.”

Melugin later added that she was moved to speak because two of her best friends are Hindu and Jewish, and she was concerned that even the simplest prayer would have Christian overtones.

Her view was echoed by Associated Student Body President Bryan Choate, who said the petition became controversial because “open-minded” students were offended at the idea of imposing Christian prayer on others.

“I completely respect the efforts they have been doing,” he said of the petitioners. “What I dislike is the fact that it infringes on the right of students of other denominations.”

The group’s secondary plan is to have a student-led prayer on school grounds before the commencement, Yi said.

That prayer would be completely acceptable, Supt. Robert L. French said, “as long as it’s not school-organized.”

Lewis and other board members said they were in sympathy with the students, and Jacobson said the matter will not end here.

“These are issues that may come up next year,” he said. “It’s such a volatile issue right now and if they are debating them at the national level, why shouldn’t we do it at the local level?”

Gary Kreep, an attorney for the San Diego-based United States Justice Foundation, which advocates for school prayer, said that the law provides for student-led prayer that is not sanctioned by school districts.

“They have a constitutional right to do that,” said Kreep, who also advised Jacobson and the board members.

Kreep added that his nonprofit legal foundation receives hundreds of calls from parents around the country at this time of year and that these calls have increased in the past two or three years.

“Students are a lot more vocal about exercising their freedoms,” he said. “You see a lot more students standing up and saying, ‘This is not right, there is something wrong here.’ ”