A Virginia federal court on Oct. 30 upheld a law requiring the state’s one million public school students to observe a daily “moment of silence” at the start of the school day, the Internet news site CNSNews.com reported.
Rejecting arguments that the law blurred constitutional lines separating church and state, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton said Virginia legislators stopped short of mandating that students pray during the moment of silence.
“Students may think as they wish, and this thinking can be purely religious in nature or purely secular in nature. All that is required is that they sit silently. Nothing and no one is favored under the act,” Hilton said in a ruling released by the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in the city of Alexandria.
In the wake of a seeming rise in violence in public schools across the country and a breakdown in school discipline, Virginia lawmakers this year required that schools set aside a moment at the start of the school day for silent reflection, according to various wire service reports.
The new law, which took effect July 1, amended a 24-year-old state statute allowing schools to voluntarily hold a moment of silence at the start of the day to allow students to “meditate, pray or engage in any other silent activity.” (BP)
Share with others: