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Back to Jan. Ed Reporter

Education Reporter
NUMBER 156 THE NEWSPAPER OF EDUCATION RIGHTS JANUARY 1999

'See You at the Pole' Is School Prayer Event

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On the morning of Sept. 16, 1998, more than three million young people in 50 states formed concentric circles around their school flagpoles to begin the new school year with prayer. Dubbed "See You at the Pole," the annual event involves students praying for their country's leaders, their teachers, and their classmates. According to an article in the Sept. 28 issue of Time magazine, " 'See You' now serves as the school-year kickoff for a rapidly swelling population of weekly campus Bible study and prayer clubs."

The event began modestly in the spring of 1990 in Burleson, Texas, when, as stated in the Time article: "Several public school students told their youth minister that they felt 'burdened' by God to pray at their school flagpoles." Texas Southern Baptist youth evangelism coordinator Chuck Flowers took the initiative statewide that fall, and 48,000 students showed up for the school yard prayer service instead of the predicted 5,000.

"See You at the Pole" has been described as "overtly evangelistic," but it is completely legal. In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a 1984 law that permits student prayer on school grounds providing it is not led by adults or conducted during school hours.


 
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