Students Worldwide Join in Prayer Event

At more than 600 schools--both public and private--around California, students gathered this week at their campus flagpoles for the fifth annual day of prayer, sponsored by the San Diego-based National Network of Youth Ministry.

More than 2 million students throughout the United States and in 20 other nations participated in the “See You at the Pole” gatherings Wednesday, praying for their teachers, peers and a prosperous school year, according to the organization, which represents youth ministries of 55 denominations and promotes the annual event.

Locally, youth pastors estimate that at least 100 schools in Los Angeles County participated in the event, including El Segundo High School, where 35 students met at the campus flagpole at 7 a.m. Wednesday to join hands in prayer.

Their open worship included prayers to end violence and drug use in schools. The students were also encouraged to ask for blessings and send prayers of strength and encouragement.

“By spreading God’s love we can show students that there’s hope,” Christina Holloway, student president of the campus Christian group New Life, said before leading the group in prayer. “There’s more [to care about than] . . . drugs and drinking and partying and sex.”

“See You at the Pole” started in Dallas five years ago when a group of students gathered spontaneously to pray. By 1991, the student-organized event had become a nationwide observance at high schools, and it has since grown to include elementary and middle schools and foreign institutions.

Some area churches helped by coordinating students at the schools in their areas. In Pasadena, the Lake Avenue Congregational Church helped plan flagpole gatherings that drew more than 200 San Gabriel Valley students at several campuses, including South Pasadena, John Muir, Arcadia, Monrovia and San Marino high schools.

In El Segundo, students from the local FourSquare Gospel Church, which helped coordinate the event, and members of New Life made up most of the participants. Holloway encouraged the students to pray about school and youth-related concerns during the 20-minute open prayer. When they were finished, the group broke into smaller groups for personal prayers.

Jim Walker, 16, prayed for the administrators: “Lord, I pray that you help them want to help the students.”

Rick Hogaboam said he prayed for strength. “I prayed for the people who are weak, so that they can find God and be strong,” the 16-year-old said.

Most students who participated in the national event were members of Christian-based faiths, according to the National Network of Youth Ministry.

This year’s event came on the heels of a recent set of religious guidelines issued by the U.S. Secretary of Education in August to clarify for school administrators what rights students currently have to express their religious beliefs in public schools.

According to those guidelines, students have the constitutional right to engage in individual or group prayer, as long as it is non-disruptive and does not impose on others’ religious beliefs. The flagpole prayer sessions are held before the school day begins.

“Schools are not religious-free zones,” said Kevin Sullivan, assistant to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. “The majority of Americans do not know that students do not lose their right to religious freedom when they step on campus.”

During a 1991 “See You at the Pole” event in Metropolis, Ill., two high school girls were arrested and threatened with expulsion; the following year, a group of students in Corpus Christi, Tex., were arrested for praying at the event. According to Doug Clark, a ministry director at the Youth Ministries network, lawsuits were filed in both cases and verdicts were rendered in favor of the students.

Prayer events at Los Angeles-area schools have gone more smoothly, Clark said. More than half the schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District have Christian clubs, he said.

Officials at the American Civil Liberties Union, which has actively fought for the separation of church and state, said they support the “See You at the Pole” event because it is within the students’ 1st Amendment rights to express their religious beliefs.

“We have no problem with this kind of activity because it was student-sponsored,” said Ann Bradley, a spokeswoman at the Southern California ACLU.