According to Assistant Principal James Lucas of Pine Creek High School in Colorado, “separation of church and state” prohibits students from meeting and praying during their free time.

Mairead McArdle at TheCollege Fix has the story:

Colorado school lets students text but not pray during free time, lawsuit says

Depose students and teachers to learn the truth about ‘seminar,’ newspaper editorial says

Colorado’s Academy School District No. 20 is under fire from religious liberty activists and the local media for telling a student that religious speech is taboo during his free time at school.

The Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal lawsuit against the district Nov. 7 after officials rebuffed an October letter from the group that claimed the district is violating the students’ First Amendment rights.

Assistant Principal James Lucas of Pine Creek High School told senior Chase Windebank on Sept. 29 that “separation of church and state” prohibits him and a group of fellow classmates from meeting informally during “seminar” time to pray and converse about religious matters, according to the lawsuit.

The group has met with no opposition from the school for the past three years, the suit says. It used an empty choir room with the permission of the choir teacher.

Told by the alliance that the First Amendment “requires schools to permit speech as long as it is not materially and substantially disruptive,” the district said Windebank’s prayer group was “non-curriculum related” and could therefore only meet “during non-instructional time.”

On Mondays and Wednesdays under district policy, all students can be excused from “seminar” – the homeroom period – and those who meet “certain academic qualifications” can be excused on Fridays as well, according to the lawsuit.

Students are free to spend this time doing almost anything: texting on phones, snacking, freshening up and chatting about any topic from a “nonreligious” perspective, the suit claims.