and other religious activities within these limits. For example, students are permitted to gather around the flagpole for prayer before school begins, as long as the event is not sponsored or endorsed by the school and other students are not pressured to attend. A school is not required, however, to allow adults to come on campus to lead such an event. It is the rights of students, not outside adults, that are protected. Teachers generally have no right to pray with or in the presence of students in a public school. As representatives of the state, teachers are obligated to protect the rights of all students, including non-believers. A teacher who abuses this position may get fired.
             If a school permits extracurricular student groups to meet outside of class time, the court requires that religious groups be given equal treatment. Again, teachers or other adults are not allowed to lead such meetings.
             The most confusing and controversial part of the current school prayer debate involves graduation prayer. In the 1992 decision Lee v. Weisman, the Supreme Court addressed this issue. The case involved prayers delivered by the teaching staff at middle school graduation exercises in Providence, Rhode Island. The school designed the program, provided for the invocation, selected the teachers, and even provided guidelines for the prayer. The Supreme Court held that the practice violated the First Amendment's prohibition against laws "respecting an establishment of religion." The Justices based their decision on the fact that it is not the business of schools to sponsor or organize religious activities, and students who might have objected to the prayer were forced unwillingly to participate. The middle school argued that the graduation was voluntary and that the children did not have to attend, but in the Court's view, few students would want to miss such a huge event in their life. For this reason, some schools have even go...