How? If this whole class put their heads together, minus the atheist's kid, and decide they want to carry on with this moment of silent prayer every morning who's going to stop them?
And like I said earlier that you can not stop people from praying on their own because people don't know if you are praying or thinking. Although, I do believe that if a atheist got wind of a group of kids having a moment of silence before class started, somebody would sue because the kids are now endorsing religion.
So, I am not disagreeing with you that the kids could put their heads together. My point was that they are stopping the teachers from leading a prayer in a class room. And a more important point that I wanted to make is this:
God is being removed from public view and for a reason. We have to keep God in public view or people will forget about God and look to the guvment for help. That is what the socialist wish for. This is what is most important.
My question too, is why is it not seen as restricting the free exercise thereof? A moment of silence does not endorse or establish a religion; and a moment of silence does not turn anybody into a religious person. Stopping prayer in school (lead by a public employee) is simply removing God from public view. This is part of the socialist agenda. Why do we have to continue to compromise God from public view. We have done enough compromising over the years. It is time for the atheist to compromise.
It appears to me that the guvment is now endorsing the religion of atheism. The guvment does this by removing pray from school (pray or moment of silence lead by a public employee, or pray that spoken in a group setting (example: see graduation ceremony). I think it is time to stop compromising and start fighting for our rights.
Constitutionally, we are correct. Only Congress has the power to establish a religion. Praying in school, manger scenes, and Ten Commandments on public property do not establish a religion. Telling me to remove the Ten Commandments or Menorah restricts my free exercise to celebrate my religion. Telling teachers that they can not lead a moment of silence restricts the free exercise thereof. And may I add that if your forefathers didn't want prayer on public property, they would never started to lead their session of Congress off with a prayer. They are not endorsing or establishing a religion when they do this. They are simply excising their Constitutional right.
Now, why can't the people do the same? I believe the problem is a group of people (called socialist) who have an agenda are trying to remove God from public view permanently. They want you to pray to the guvment for help from the time you are in the cradle to the time you are in the grave.
The teacher and the school board when they punish the entire class for being disruptive! Either way, you are going to have a problem.
Imagine this: when I was in school many years ago, every morning we said the Pledge of Allegiance to both the US and Texas flags. So, instead of saying this at a designated time each day, we decide that they can say it anytime they want. Do you think this might create some problems for the teacher? Do you think it might be disruptive to the rest of the class? Common sense, which isn’t that d@#n common anymore, says give the entire school a time to do that thing you do, so it doesn’t create a problem later!