5-Year-Old Rebuked for Praying at School, Parents Call 'Religious Discrimination'

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Apr 02, 2014

5-Year-Old Rebuked for Praying at School, Parents Call 'Religious Discrimination'

A 5-year-old girl in Florida was rebuked by a lunchroom worker for praying in her elementary school cafeteria before her meal reports Charisma News. The incident occurred last month; now Marcos Perez, the father’s child has hired lawyers to demand that the school stop “engaging in such religious discrimination” as stated in a letter to the school.

The letter from the Liberty Institute Lawyers explains that the child bowed her head in prayer, but was told by a lunchroom supervisor to stop.

The girl said, “But it’s good to pray,” to which the supervisor responded, “It is not good.” When the girl tried again to bow her head and pray silently, she was stopped again.

The Liberty Institute argue that the Carillon Elementary School is violating state and federal law. “...we expect the school district to apologize to the Perezez and the community as well as take steps to ensure this does not happen again,” the letter states.

Since the exchange in the cafeteria, the Perez family has started homeschooling. Perez said, “...we have exercised our option as parents to teach our daughter at home. We live in a very good school district, but we cannot, in good conscience, send our daughter to a school where her religious liberty has been compromised.”

 



5-Year-Old Rebuked for Praying at School, Parents Call 'Religious Discrimination'