Engel v Vitale

1460 Words6 Pages
Engel v. Vitale In 1951 the New York State Board of Education had approved the 22 word prayer for recitation each morning in the public schools of New York. It stated Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country. The Board of Education believed that this prayer can turn out to be an useful thing to develop the character and good citizenship of the students that live in the State of New York. The question was if this violated the first amendment and if the board of education violated any law that made student take time out to say this prayer aloud. The prayer was offered to the school boards in the State for use, the participation in the prayer was voluntary. Engel v. Vitale is a famous supreme court case that started in 1962 that dealt with the voluntary prayer which was stated in schools. People though that praying to god was going against their beliefs and religion so they wanted for the prayer to be removed from the schools.In New York, the Union Free School District No. 9 directed the local principal to have the prayer said aloud by each class in the presence of a teacher at the beginning of the school day.The parents of ten pupils in the New Hyde Park schools disagreed and were upset that this prayer was being said in their children's school. They soon filed a suit in a New York State court to banned the prayer,they kept on insisting that the use of this prayer in the public schools was contrary to their own and their children's beliefs, religions, or religious practices. The separation of church and state says that government should stay out of the business of enforcing any religious activities no matter what the case is. The Board of education's prayer is quite simple and it violates the 1st Amendment and because of this should be banned
Open Document