From Orbusmax Blog:

About 10 days ago, I received an interesting e-mail that I saved until after most of the election frenzy had died down and I had some time to do a little investigation of my own and present a fair representation of the facts.

The e-mailer (someone who has credibility with me but who will remain anonymous) alleged that the Dunlap elementary school in Seattle had been and was allowing students to leave classes at 1:30 in the afternoon to participate in a Muslim prayer service, held in a room and supervised by a teacher and/or a school staffer. The e-mailer also alleged that the services were being kept very low-key, and that only the involved parties (participating students and families) and the school administration was aware of what was going on, and that this had been going on since the beginning of the school year. The e-mailer believes there is also a similar situation at Aki Kurose Middle school but provided no details.

Orb contacted the school and asked for a comment and got this response:

Thank you for checking for the facts.

No afternoon prayer session was organized by any adult or staff member. Dunlap is a Seattle Public School and as such there is a clear separation of church and state.

It is the policy of Seattle School Board that no religious belief or non-belief be promoted by the School District or its employees, and none should be disparaged. We do not have a prayer policy, nor was anything kept quiet.

Sounds good right? Well….not quite.

During Ramadan, a couple of Muslim families whose children attend Dunlap contacted the school and asked for the reasonable religious accommodation of allowing their children a place to prayer during the month preceding their holiday Eide.

It is my understanding that it is lawful for schools to excuse students briefly from class to enable them to fulfill their religious obligations.

My further understanding is that due to safety issues it is allowable for a staff member to supervise those obligations. At Dunlap during this month, between classes, an ELL teacher supervised students for five minutes each day.

This no longer happens as Ramadan is over.

What struck me as interesting was this:

Yes, any family, from any religious group may request reasonable religious accommodation from any public school. I am unaware of what Aki Kurose does at their school but I assume it is a similar effort to make a religious accommodation.

Bearing in mind I am a cynic, I have to say BS.  If kids cannot even sing Christmas Carols I doubt having Mass in school during Holy Week would fly.  Maybe I am wrong, and maybe now that this is happening, we wil find out, but the attitude on this is that Muslims have unique needs.

This echoes something I reported on back in June.

Washington Schools Participate in Establishment of Religion

David Montgomery reports in the Seattle Times about ways that public schools are responding to the prayer needs of Muslim students: Muslim students get help juggling school and faith. Montgomery interviewed me at length last week about the issue, but only included a brief mention of my concerns at the end of the article, so I thought I would elaborate here.

The Seattle Times article referenced above says this:

On Friday afternoons, Nathan Hale High School senior Abdisiyad Adan asks his fifth-period teacher what he'll miss in class, writes down the homework for the weekend and leaves school.

Other Muslim students at Nathan Hale pile into Adan's car, and they set off for the Idriss Mosque a little more than a mile away. By the time they return from their mandatory Friday prayers, the school day is nearly over.

..

The district's Office of Equity and Race Relations has established a committee to examine the needs of Muslim students, and the ways the district can address them.

Caprice Hollins, the district's director of equity and race relations, said that over the past several years, administrators and teachers have contacted her with questions about Muslim students' needs. She said the committee isn't trying to come up with policy but rather to provide information to staff members about Muslim culture.

In Shoreline, Muslim students are provided with an empty classroom for prayers and are usually allowed to miss class for their prayers. Shorewood High School senior Omar Sarhan said teachers sometimes suggest that students remain in class for particularly important assignments.

So this is not new.  But did those schools provide a teacher's oversight?  And does such oversight constitute a formal advocation?  Would a teacher be allowed to formally oversee a bible study for a christian group?  A healing service for a charismatic club? 

But the issue can be a sensitive one, as is the case in the Seattle district.

An early advertisement soliciting members for the committee referred to it as the "Prayer in Schools Committee" — a name Hollins now describes as "naive." The name has been changed to the Religious Accommodations Committee, and while the focus remains on Islam, Hollins said, the committee is open to concerns about whether the needs of other students, such as Jews or Buddhists, are being accommodated.

And Catholics or Christians?  Many wonder.

Some critics believe focusing just on Muslim prayer reflects a bias against Christianity. Others say the effort gives too much attention to one group.

Andy MacDonald, a Ballard resident who contributes to the blog Soundpolitics.com, said the committee appears to be dealing only with Muslims because they've made their concerns heard.

"If they're going to have a broad district policy, they should have a policy for prayer in general [without exceptions]," he said.

Indeed.  The door is now open, but only a shortsighted vague policy is in place.   Without proper forethought they are just winging it.

Hollins said that Muslim students are unique because they have a particular time of day when they need to pray.

Note to Hollins.  Some Orthodox Christians also have specific prayer times.  Muslims are not unique.

"For myself as a Christian, while I pray every day, there's not a particular time that my supervisor needs to know [about]," Hollins said.

American Civil Liberties Union of Washington spokesman Doug Honig said a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases justifies the Seattle district's efforts.

"For all Muslims, prayer is … significant," Adan said. "When you have to choose between prayer and school, it's tough."

Kids are harassed for talking about God, for Reading bibles, a student had the plug pulled on her for mentioning God during her graduation speech.  A local school reprinted menus that had Christmas on it, schools ban Christmas songs from concerts (even instrumentals) and a local school even banned a giving tree (too much like a christmas tree).  Christians protest and are mocked for being uber-sensitive.  Very few stand up for them and the casual discrimination and dilution of their faith.

In other words, christian's have had to make choices and accommondation all along.  Why cannot Muslims?  Without trying to be cruel, I have to ask why they are so special as to be afforded perfect accomodation?

The Justification is that Christianity is the dominant religion, and the minority faiths require more accommondation, but in reality the once you start a policy of preference, it is discrimination, pure and simple.

The ugly truth is that the local government are scared of the Muslims, scared they will be accused of ill treating them, in an apologetic post 911 world.  They are scared of the appearence of discrimination, and are overcompnsating at the expense of the others.  There are plenty of other faiths that would love to have this level of acceptence and accommondation, and not just the various Christian sects.

My answer to the prayer rooms is either say no, or install equal space for other faiths.  Either hold the schools to a secular line, or make accommondation for all.

To do otherwise is to violate the establishment and the equal protection clauses of the Constitution.

Cross posted at Leaning Straight Up