Trego's Mountain Ear

I’m having trouble summarizing this one, not least because I lost my notes. In short: The meeting did discuss prayer, but did not discuss a four day week.

About prayer: The discussion was specifically with regards to having prayer on the agenda as a part of each school board meeting. The result- no.

Community presence and involvement: High. It was a very crowded parking lot. For as heated a topic as it is, everyone was remarkably polite. Arguments did stray beyond the scope of ‘prayer in the board meeting’ to ‘prayer in school’ fairly frequently, and got a bit personal at times.

My impression: We are really fortunate in the community we have. Prayer in school is, to steal a phrase, “Trolling for Lawsuits”; It’s a legally risky topic.

But the people that would have grounds for the lawsuit were at that meeting asking the board not to do it. All they would have had to do to win a lawsuit (civil rights violations pay triple damages!) was do nothing, wait for the next meeting, and file. And they showed up to try to keep the school from making a mistake anyway. Wow.

Ina perfect world, you should walk out from a public meeting with the sense that everyone there is trying to do the morally correct thing. This one felt that way, though there were clearly some deep divides on what the morally correct thing was. In the end, the board decided to avoid having prayer on the agenda.