sible. Many people have come to realize the problems with trying to teach religion and morality in the public school. The freedom of religion lies in the hands of the constitution. Nevertheless, the rules concerning the separation of church and state as we know them today came from a Supreme Court verdict in the case of McCollum vs. Board of Education of the Champain School District No. 71. This was a case in which an atheistic mother was suing the board of education of her son's school because the he was forced to pray in class. She felt that this violated her son's first amendment right to the freedom of religion. She had to appeal the case all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, only to lose there and have to appeal the United States Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court, she won her battle. With the verdict, the court handed down a writ of mandamus, or a order to the school board to stop the prayers immediately and "adopt and enforce rules and regulations prohibiting all instruction and teaching of religious education in all their public schools." (Kramer 8).
             A more modern dilemma includes cases that involve graduation prayer. For example, the nineteen ninety-two case of Lee v. Weisman. This was a case that involved a prayer that a pastor had read aloud to a group of seniors at graduation. The most incriminating facts were that the school chose the pastor, outlined the contents of what the prayer should be, constructed the program, and initiated the invocation. The prayer was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. According to Oliver Thomas:
             The Justices based their decision on the fact that (1) it is not the business of schools to sponsor or organize religious activities, and (2) students wh
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