CRANSTON – After hearing three hours of passionate testimony last Thursday night, the Cranston School Committee voted 5-2 to not appeal a federal court ruling calling for the permanent removal of a prayer banner at Cranston High School West because most members believed that the cost of additional legal expenses would negatively impact the school department budget.
The banner became the center of debate last April when the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit contending that it was a religious symbol displayed in a public school that violated the First Amendment rights of Jessica Ahlquist, a self-avowed atheist, who is now a junior at Cranston West.
More than 700 people attended the school committee meeting, many of them wearing signs bearing the directive “Appeal,” while others carried placards supporting their position. Before the meeting began, many supporters of the prayer banner sang “God Bless America,” while during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, a large number in the audience shouted “Under God.”
Joseph V. Cavanagh, a First Amendment attorney and member of the legal team which represented the City of Cranston in the ACLU suit, told those gathered that he’d received hundreds of calls about the case, mostly in support of keeping the banner on the wall of the auditorium where it has hung since 1963 when it was presented as a gift from that year’s graduating class.
“This is not about prayer in public schools,” Cavanagh emphasized, adding that a 1963 Supreme Court decision stipulates that prayers cannot be recited in public schools.
Cavanagh said that while he believes that the Cranston banner is a “display,” the federal court judge interpreted the issue differently, calling it a “prayer” because it begins with the words “Our heavenly Father” and ends with “Amen.”
The attorney said during the past 50 years, most students “never realized it was there” and that the inscription was never used as a prayer.
Lawyers representing Ahlquist have asked the city to pay $173,000 in legal fees to the ACLU. Cavanagh estimated it would cost up to $500,000 to appeal the case to higher courts, and noted that if an appeal was denied by the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, the United States Supreme Court has discretionary power to refuse to hear the case.
Describing the banner as a “historic relic,” Cavanagh said that while “prayer is important,” the case would not solve the issue of God being removed from the public arena.
“This mural doesn’t represent prayer being taken from students,” he argued, adding that the battle was fought long ago. Cavanagh added that the controversy has offered all students a “tremendous lesson” about prayer being removed from schools almost a half-century ago, and also for the need to respect the rights of others.
During the public testimony, many Cranston residents said that they were willing to help fund the cost of further litigation, adding that if the school committee voted not to appeal, it would set a bad precedent and encourage others to try to remove references to God and religion from society.
Other speakers urged the school committee not to appeal the court decision, noting that money spent on additional litigation would result in further cuts to school programs and student services.
Speaking after the vote was taken, Kerri Kelleher, a parishioner of St. Mark Church, Cranston, said that her focus was on the committee’s “fiscal responsibility to the children.” While she supported the appeal in theory, Kelleher agreed with most school committee members that added legal expenses would negatively impact the school department budget.
Kelleher is the founder of BASICS (Benefitting All Students in Cranston Schools), an afterschool music enrichment program that was created after cuts were made in the school district’s music program.
“I am going to pray for her (Jessica Alhquist) because she has no God,” Kelleher said, noting that she is following the example of her pastor, Father Anthony Verdelotti, who said in a recent homily that he was praying for the student.
School committee member Frank Lombardi, who voted in favor of the appeal, said he was disappointed by the committee’s decision.
“I hope it’s going to be preserved in one way or another,” he said, adding that some church groups and other organizations had expressed an interest in displaying the banner.
“It’s never an easy decision,” Lombardi said. “But we have to live with that decision.”
