Protest
It was organized by word-of-mouth, and I never learned conclusively who first had the idea, and who first discussed it with whom. Over the course of a couple of days, I was approached by multiple friends and acquaintances. Each simply asked that I inform people in my Homeroom that students throughout the school would pray the old Regents Prayer “as a protest” on a given day. This is what the Long Island Press reported the day after it happened:
The reaction from Conservative School Board member Bruno, heretofore best known for his attempts to remove and ban books from the school libraries, was surprisingly cautious. Unlike most students and many adults, he probably understood the gist of the Supreme Court decision. He also realized that praying aloud only works if everyone uses the same words – and that a School Board’s stipulating what words of prayer could be spoken would always be deemed unconstitutional.
