Vancouver student prayer group disciplined

[Amelia]

Vancouver student prayer group disciplined

Friday, March 2, 2007

By DAVID KROUGH, kgw.com and KGW Staff

VANCOUVER Wa-- A high school student prayer group in Vancouver is being disciplined for trying to disrupt the education of other students.

The group meets daily at Heritage High in a student common area known as “The Den.”

But it’s not religion that had administrators taking action -- it was their choice of location, officials said.

The group of about a dozen students were told they could meet -- and were even given their own meeting room and a faculty supervisor.

But that wasn’t good enough, the students said. They wanted to be more visible.

“There wouldn’t be any group that would be allowed to meet there,” because of the location, Carol Fenstermacher of the Evergreen School District said.

According to Liberty Counsel, a non-profit legal organization advancing religious freedom, the students were suspended for 10 days.

The group said a vice principal denied the students a room to meet, and a complaint from a Satanist student prompted the investigation.

"It is absolutely outrageous that the school allowed one Satanist student to exercise a heckler's veto over the other students' speech,” Anita L. Staver, President of Liberty Counsel, said. This situation underscores the ignorance of school officials regarding the constitutional rights of students."

"Most of the students who were suspended are immigrants from Russia,” Stayer said. “We must show them that America is still the land of the free. School officials must immediately reverse the suspensions."

The district said students were disciplined for disrupting the education of others, but did not elaborate on the punishment.