U.S. News
Nashville School’s Ramadan Accommodations Spark First Amendment Fight
Clear Facts
- Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti accused a Nashville public school of promoting specific religious viewpoints by facilitating Muslim prayer sessions.
- Reports indicate John Overton High School permitted over 80 students to leave class daily for Ramadan prayers organized by school staff.
- Skrmetti warned that government entities crossing into active promotion of religious exercise violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti criticized Metro Nashville Public Schools for reportedly creating dedicated Islamic prayer rooms and encouraging students to skip academic instruction.
He distinguished between the right to free exercise and the unlawful use of state resources to facilitate specific religious activities.
“The establishment clause, as interpreted, and as we hear about every time the legislature tries to do anything these days, says that the state can’t … participate in promoting particular religious viewpoints.”
Reports show students were provided food-free classrooms for fasting and used school facilities to set up gender-segregated prayer areas where the Quran was recited.
Skrmetti suggested that when a school dedicates institutional resources to these events, it moves beyond accommodation into the realm of proselytizing.
“So if the school is dedicating resources to something, that’s a very different situation than if the students are self-organizing.”
“I look at it as an attempt to propagandize and proselytize [non-Muslim] students. That’s my view.”
Federal guidance from the U.S. Department of Education maintains that public schools cannot sponsor prayer or pressure students into religious acts.
Skrmetti indicated that his office may take further action regarding these school board policies in the near future.
“I expect that we’ll be hearing more about it one way or another.”
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