Pregame prayer legal battle ends

SANTA FE — Call it fate or a higher calling.

Marian Ward was never supposed to say a prayer before a Santa Fe High School football game more than five years ago.

The law was supposed to be against delivering such a message over the public address system. And Ward, a band student and the daughter of a Santa Fe preacher, wasn’t the original choice to deliver the pregame message.

A judge’s order and a fellow student’s decision to step aside put Ward in the press box of Indians Stadium that night and in the center of a national debate about free speech and religious expression in public schools.

It was a legal fight that continued long after the lights of the stadium were shut off.

That legal fight has ended.

+++

Court Victory

Ward, now a senior at the University of Arkansas, received a bittersweet court victory in December.

She was awarded damages in her lawsuit against the school district over a policy she claims restricted her right to express her religious beliefs, but the court never really issued an opinion on the matter.

The deadline to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court is Thursday. Ward has decided not to pursue the appeal.

And what is a five-year legal battle that sounded in courtrooms and pulpits across the country worth?

In Ward’s case, $1.

“It’s really a weird situation,” said Ward. “I won, but not on the merits of the case. The district just decided to pay the damages, and that’s it.”

When Ward filed a lawsuit against the Santa Fe school district over its policy prohibiting prayer at school functions, she listed the punitive damages she sought as $1.

“This was never about trying to get money out of the district or seek damages,” said Ward’s attorney, Kelly Coghlan. “It was always about the merits of the case. This was about a school district preventing a student’s right to religious expression when all other forms of speech are practically allowed.”

+++

Student-led Prayers

Ward’s pregame message came at a time when the district was embroiled in the Doe vs. Santa Fe ISD case. In that lawsuit, a family claimed the school district created a hostile atmosphere for those who did not practice or wish to practice Christianity.

At the crux of the suit was the issue of student-led prayers before football games.

That case eventually found its way into the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, with the justices ruling 6-3 that the district’s policy permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Months before the case went before the justices, Ward decided to make her own statement. Five years later, she has no regrets.

“It’s kind of surreal in a lot of ways,” said Ward. “It’s not something the average high school senior experiences.

“I had never seen the (stadium) filled like that.”

Television cameras seemed perched at every corner. Reporters were mixed in with demonstrators from both sides of the issue.

+++

No Scripted Message

Ward said she entered the press box not really sure what she was going to say.

“I didn’t want to have a scripted message because that is not really how I approach my prayers,” said Ward. “I had a few notes, but really until the judge made that ruling, I didn’t know what I was going to be able to say.

“I really didn’t know what I was going to do in many ways.”

That night wasn’t Ward’s first time to wade into the prayer in school controversy. As a seventh grader, when the Doe vs. Santa Fe ISD case began, she remembers she and some friends started taking Bibles to school and wearing Christian T-shirts in “silent protest.”

“I’ve always been interested in politics and the issue of the freedom of religious expression,” said Ward. “This wasn’t something I just started doing that night.”

+++

‘Real Life’

To this day, school prayer is a hot topic in classrooms, law libraries and churches across the country. And while no longer in the spotlight, Ward’s involvement does come up.

“It comes up in some of the weirdest situations,” said Ward. “But it’s neat when it does come up, because it’s not the Constitution on paper. It’s real life.”

Ward isn’t the only one who is reminded from time to time about her message from the Santa Fe press box.

Gary Causey was Ward’s high school principal. At the time, he was also demonized by many as being the man stopping prayer in school.

Even though he personally was and is in support of allowing religious expression, especially at football games, Causey was the point man in enforcing the district’s policy that restricted the practice.

“I definitely learned how to handle the media,” said Causey, who now works in the district’s human resources department. “I don’t regret having lived through that period of history down here. Prayer at football games was just many of the things being challenged at the time.

“So much of it was external forces, not so much generated from Santa Fe.”

+++

Cooling Off

Things are better now and more defined, said Causey.

“It has cooled off,” he said. “(Ward) left for college and the Supreme Court made its decision. It made us change some of our practices, but I think we have remained focused as a school district on what is important.”

Still, as his college-aged daughters can attest, Causey finds that he, too, is tied to a piece of American history.

“I get a call from time to time from someone telling me I am in a history book somewhere or there’s a picture in a book on the subject and I am in the photo,” he said.

As for Ward? She has requested that the district issue two checks to end the case.

One would be for roughly $50,000 in attorney’s fees the court ordered to be paid to Coghlan and the other would be for $1.

School district Superintendent Jon Whittemore said the district had received Ward’s request but would not comment on whether the district would honor it.

“We are going to act on the advice of our attorneys,” he said.

Ward said she hopes the district will honor her request.

“I want to keep my $1 as a memento,” said Ward. “There was a purpose to this whole fight for the rights of students and to let them know they can express themselves.”

+++

Prayer Said By Marian Ward — Sept. 3, 1999

I have chosen to solemnize this game. And if you want to participate, bow your heads and give thanks to the Lord.

Lord, thank you for this evening. Thank you for all the prayers that were lifted up this week for me. I pray that you watch over each and every person here tonight, especially those involved in the game. Just be with the fans. And just be with each and every one of us as we go home.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.