Natural Prayer

            From Tolerance to Discouragement Have our public schools become anti-religious?.
             The Church and State Act that was put in place in 1963 has been the basis of many heated discussions. The government banned open prayer in schools at this time because it was found to be unconstitutional to go against their faith. This means that teachers could no longer encourage prayer or lead prayer during the school day. Even though students cannot be forced to pray or join in on any religious based teachings, they can do so willingly, but only if found no to be disruptive to the class. .
             Even though students are allowed to pray in school, any discussions on religion are blatantly discouraged. In Ontario an Islamic student was sent home because of her attire. She wore head scarves because her religion forbids her to show+ her head uncovered. Since the school policy states that no student may wear head coverings of any kind (exp. Hats), the girl was reprimanded for following the guidelines of her chosen religion. Shera Rashid explains, "I was told I could not wear my hijab to school because it broke the dress code. I had to change schools because if I were to be seen in public without my hijab I would shame my family and my Mosque.".
             A similar situation happened at a public school in British Columbia in the spring of 2003. A young man was told to stop bringing his Bible to school because it was deemed unsuitable material for school. He was told that other students had taken offense to his reading it aloud to a friend at lunch. Tom Mitchell states that he plans to bring the matter before the B.C. school board and demand he be allowed to continue bringing his Bible to school. Mitchell gave this statement to a local newspaper during an interview, "I have to walk these halls every day, see things and hear things that offend me. I am forced to sit in classes where students talk blasphemy. If I am not allowed sanction from their views, why are they from mine?".