Is a mandatory moment of silence in public schools constitutional - Term Paper Example

formulation. This effort is intended to give students reflection time without the influence of any specific religious orientation. The supporters of this position argue that this moment can be used by students to pray, meditate or study. Unfortunately, the result of this effort has served to obfuscate the matter rather than to clarify and set guidelines. Many argue that the mandatory moment of silence is nothing more than state-sanctioned prayer in disguise. Atheists and other “non-religious” advocates argue that there are other time periods in the course of a student’s day that can be set aside for this silence and, in fact, since personal prayer is something that can be done by students on their own time and without anyone knowing, why set aside a time during the official day for this purpose?

Since the 1962 Engel vs. Vitale ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, different state courts have ruled in very different ways on the constitutionality of a public school’s mandatory moment of silence. For example, in 1976, the state of Virginia passed a law that allowed public schools to practice a one minute moment of silence. However, in 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Wallace vs. Jaffree that the moment of silence was unconstitutional. Despite this, in 2000, the state of Virginia passed another law requiring public schools to observe a moment of silence every day.

Since the 2000 action by the state of Virginia, other states have also enacted laws that allow students the opportunity to observe a moment of silence. To date, 12 states require that students be given the opportunity to exercise a moment of silence in public school classrooms. Further, in 20 other states, teachers are given the option to allow a moment of silence in their classrooms. In October 2000, the U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton, ruled that a “moment of silence”