SCHOOL BOARD TOLD TO END BACCALAUREATES

A privately sponsored baccalaureate might present an alternative for Cape Girardeau public schools in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning prayer at graduations.

At Monday's Board of Education meeting, school district attorney Joseph Russell told board members that the district shouldn't sponsor baccalaureate in light of last spring's ruling.

Superintendent Neyland Clark was to meet today with local religious leaders to see if a privately sponsored baccalaureate is possible.

"This is an issue which touches America deeply," Russell told the board. "But I think the handwriting is on the wall as far as baccalaureate ceremonies go."

Russell said although the Supreme Court ruling dealt with prayer at graduation ceremonies, "There is no question, on its face, it would be improper for the school district to sponsor a baccalaureate because baccalaureate has historically been a religious-type of service.

Russell said, "Although students are not required to attend, it is still obviously a school-sponsored event."

He said the district has a choice of not making any changes or discontinuing the school-sponsored baccalaureate and seeing if students or the community would organize a ceremony.

Clark said he has received phone calls from individuals indicating a court challenge lies in the wings should the district go ahead and sponsor the ceremony.

Scott Moon, president of the Cape Girardeau Ministerial Alliance, attended the board meeting. He said the alliance will discuss the baccalaureate issue at its noon meeting today.

"I think baccalaureate plays a valuable role at the time of graduation for students," Moon said. "Traditionally that has been officially sponsored by school districts.

"But in the times we live now, churches and synagogues cannot rely on public institutions to sponsor religious activities," said Moon. "In some ways the decision by the Supreme Court calls religious bodies into responsibility."

Board members indicated they would like to see the baccalaureate ceremony continue but don't want to violate the law.

Board member Kathy Swan said: "I would like to stay within the compliance of the law, but I would like to see some creative thinking behind this. Baccalaureate is very much a tradition; it's a service parents and students are going to miss if we don't have one.

"It's kind of like Thanksgiving: Baccalaureate is time for students to give thanks to whomever for where they are, where they have come from, and what may be coming in the future.

Swan said, "I would like to see one but I want to be proper and legal."

Board member Lyle Davis quoted Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissenting opinion to the court's finding: "It's a sorry state when graduates and their parents may not proceed to thank God, as Americans have always done, for the blessings he has generously bestowed on them and their country."

Board member Pat Ruopp said: "We have an interested group who would like to continue the practice. So long as we are within the letter of the law and the intent of the law, I think we should allow them to conduct that exercise."

Ruopp said a group of parents and students has expressed interest in sponsoring the ceremony if the district chooses not to host it.