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I copied and pasted this to the Shelbyville, Indiana city website. Just doing my civic duty.
http://www.cityofshelbyvillein.com/

Brett Means‎Freedom From Religion Foundation

two weeks ago, I substitute taught in a Indiana public high school for a teacher who's infant son was gravely ill. This teacher is a football coach and the classes were advanced weight lifting. Most of the students were junior and senior athletes. Before one of the classes began, a girl gathered the class around and had a very Christian prayer already typed up and wanted to pray for their teacher/coach. I told the class that anyone that did not want to participate could go on down to the weight room. Not one kid left. I offered to read the prayer for her and she let me. The prayer was specifically for the coach and his son. Prayed for healing and comfort. The prayer ended with "In Jesus name, Amen" Afterwards, the girl led the group with the Lord's prayer. This whole activity was student initiated, student created with an out for any student that did not want to participate. I was never more inspired by teenagers as I was that morning. Later that day, I informed the administration of what happened and the principal had no issue with it since it was student initiated. He did say maybe the girl should have read the prayer, but did not reprimand me for doing so. He even stated he supported the students and the prayer. They had me write out a statement for their files just in casse someone did complain. To my knowledge, nobody has. Your organization may not like incidents like these, but the Constitution protects religious expression and students do not lose these rights just because they are in school. Only an agent of the government could potentially violate the Constitution. A private citizen cannot. The Constitution is a limit on government, not the people.

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Terrie Young likes this.
Tom Ace The Constitution does not protect a public school teacher being involved with prayers with students. The Constitution does not protect a teacher telling children they can "leave the room" if they don't want to be part of a prayer. The Constitution LIMITS government involvement, including teachers, in religious rituals and practices.

"The Constitution is a limit on government"

Yes, and a public school teacher is a representative of the government while on duty and acting in their official capacity as a teacher.

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Dick V Turtle Yes, it is absolutely a limit on the gov't and you represented the gov't in this situation. You were not a private citizen. Your actions were completely illegal and this needs to be reported to this org. Thanks for writing a full confession.

Also, asking students who don't want to participate in a clearly Christian activity in a public school to segregate themselves is wrong and illegal. Do you want them to wear little gold stars too?

Anyone here from Indiana? Please take this written confession and file a complaint to the school system.

33 mins · Like · 5
Dick V Turtle Damn this pisses me off that you would allow this kind of peer pressure in a public school on kids to support a religious activity.

30 mins · Like · 3
Mike Soboren As a teacher, you cannot participate in student religious activities while on the clock. Also, it is illegal for you to tell students to leave if they don't want to participate in a religious activity. I really hope someone from your school files a complaint for what you did was illegal and unethical.

29 mins · Edited · Like · 1
Brett Means I think you are stretching it a little. Per Constitution, the federal government is not to make a law respecting the establishment of a religion. May I ask how me reading a prayer establishes a law pertaining to religion that forces anyone to believe a certain way. Like you, I would fight tooth and nail against anyone that attempted to do that.

29 mins · Like
Dick V Turtle At what specific school did this happen and what is the principal's name?

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Dick V Turtle Superintendent's too, if you don't mind.

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Tina Incolorado Congratulations, Brett. You broke the law.

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Dick V Turtle You can read about how you broke the law here: https://ffrf.org/public.../brochures/item/14113-schoolprayer

27 mins · Like · 1
Mike Soboren "May I ask how me reading a prayer establishes a law..."

It's not just establishing a law, it's showing favouritism or preference to one belief over another, and the 14th amendment makes it apply at all levels of government. The courts have ruled on this the same way for decades. You, in your role as a teacher, cannot participate, promote favour or endorse one belief over another. It's illegal.

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Tom Ace Brett, no law has to be passed to violate the First Amendment. If your local police department decides it's going to start arresting Christians for reading the Bible, does it matter if they passed a law stating that people who read the Bible can be arrested? No government action at any level can infringe or limit a private citizen's religious liberties or immunities. That's exactly what you did. And you telling children that they can "leave the room if they don't like it" is beyond disgusting.

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Dick V Turtle From the article:

"It is dishonest to call any prayer "voluntary" that is encouraged or required by a public official or legislature. By definition, if the government suggests that students pray, whether by penning the prayer, asking them to vote whether to pray or setting aside time to pray, it is endorsing and promoting that prayer. It is coercive for schools to schedule worship as an official part of the school day, school sports or activities, or to use prayer to formalize graduation ceremonies. Such prayers are more "mandatory" than "voluntary."

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Brett Means I didn't encourage or require it. It was student initiated. I did nothing accept volunteer to read it for her.

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Frank Wagle To Brett Means, I suggest you visit this site and read the rules very carefully before you get your ass in some real trouble.

http://www2.ed.gov/.../religionandsc.../prayer_guidance.html

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Brett Means You guys got your panties in a bunch because over a prayer for the health of an infant that is gravely ill.

24 mins · Like
Tom Ace You told children they should leave the room if they don't like Christian prayer, while you gave Christians control of your class room to use for religious purposes. This is most definitely a violation.

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Dick V Turtle You reading it is encouraging, stop being a liar. You also said students that did not want to participate had to leave, which is also illegal.

23 mins · Like
Dick V Turtle If you believe in prayer so much, stop receiving medical attention.

23 mins · Like
Dick V Turtle Now can we have the name of the school, principal and superintendent please?

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Brett Means I did no such thang. I said if you don't want to participate you are welcome to go to the weight room. I invited them to do which ever they wanted. I wasn't going to interfere with a student that wanted to pray. Doing so would have violated her Constitutional rights.

23 mins · Like
Alana Smithee Please tell me you don't teach English.

~~I did nothing accept volunteer to read it for her.~~

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Dick V Turtle "I did no such thang."

Clearly not an english class.

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Chad Brown // Before one of the classes began, //

Uhm

// I told the class that anyone that did not want to participate could go on down to the weight room//

Yah. You, in an official capacity as a teacher, instructed non-Christians or those Christians who would disagree to excuse themselves to accommodate your sectarian religious beliefs explicitly.

//whole activity was student initiated, stu//

This is not student initiated.

// I offered to read the prayer //

Not only that, you instructed people that are not Christian or not Christian enough to leave and in the role as your official capacity as a teacher.

//ur organization may not like incidents like these, but the Constitution protects religious expression//

You violated the law. The kids could have freely organized and prayed without your intervention, BETWEEN classes, but that isn't what happened.

22 mins · Like · 1
Brett Means I'm typing fast, yes should have been except.

22 mins · Like
Dick V Turtle You ostracized the non-christian students, you dick.

22 mins · Like · 3
Mike Soboren "It was student initiated. I did nothing accept volunteer to read it for her."

That is something you cannot do. It is illegal.

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Tom Ace Prayer doesn't accomplish anything, and you using your position of authority to participate in prayers with students is unconstitutional.

If the students wanted to get together to pray after class, or if you wanted to give the class a moment of silence so students who wished to could pray on their own, that would be one thing. What you did was unconstitutional.

21 mins · Like
Mike Soboren "I said if you don't want to participate you are welcome to go to the weight room."

Again, that is illegal.

20 mins · Like · 2
Melanie Franklin Bergland Why didn't the girl read the thing herself?

20 mins · Like
Dick V Turtle Too bad prayer couldn't help this kid.

19 mins · Like
Brett Means To prevent the girl from praying would have violated her Constiutional rights.

19 mins · Like
Brett Means Or I should say, leading the activity.

19 mins · Like
Chad Brown Engel V Vitale 1962 is the court precedent that makes mandatory prayer unconstitutional.

Later court cases also ruled out moments of silence, asking others to leave through exclusion, or holding an audience of kids 'captive' to accommodate a religious practice.

19 mins · Edited · Like · 1
Melanie Franklin Bergland Of course, no one left the room. They probably didn't want to be singled out for ridicule later, especially in school.

19 mins · Like · 3
Brett Means The prayer was not mandatory

19 mins · Like
Dick V Turtle Prayer has also been proven an ineffective method for any kind of healing results. But why should you care about facts and studies? You're only a teacher!

http://www.nbcnews.com/.../power-prayer-flunks-unusual-test/

19 mins · Like
Tom Ace Children don't have the right to speak out in class in any manner. Students can pray to themselves silently at virtually any time. They do not have the right to use class time to practice their religion in front of the class.

What you did would be equivalent of an atheist teacher saying, "Christians, please excuse yourself from the room if you don't want to be subjected to the mockery of your religion that is about to ensue."

18 mins · Like · 1
Frank Wagle To Brett Means, You wrote, "You guys got your panties in a bunch because over a prayer for the health of an infant that is gravely ill."

No we didn't. We got irritated at a teacher who violated the right of students. During class time was not the time for such activities.

18 mins · Like · 3
Dick V Turtle Brett Means The prayer was not mandatory"

But was still illegal.

18 mins · Like · 1
Chad Brown // prevent the girl from praying would have violated her Constiutional rights.//

The law would only prevent her from praying during class time AND you leading the prayer, which you already admitted to do so and contradicted yourself about whether its before class or not.

18 mins · Like · 1
Brett Means I studied Educational Law at a public university and the instruction I received there would disagree with you.

17 mins · Like
Mike Soboren "To prevent the girl from praying"

She can pray. You cannot. You also cannot participate in it, encourage it, tell students to leave if they don't want to participate, nor can you hold up your class to accommodate it. Prayers have to be done on the student's time, not classroom time.

Face it, you broke the law.

17 mins · Like · 3
Dick V Turtle Schools are allowed to have after and before schools groups for student led prayer on any public school campus in the USA. They also may pray silently to themselves all during the day. Why do they have to take everyone's class time too?

17 mins · Like · 1
Chad Brown //ld say, leading the activit//

You lead the activity, the girl could have accomplished all this between classes, but instead had to defer to you to include the whole class. You then took it upon yourself to exclude those who would not be eligible to...See More

17 mins · Like · 1
Brett Means I did not lead a prayer in the sense of me praying on my own. I simply read what the student had already written out. It was hers, not mine.

16 mins · Like
Dick V Turtle Brett Means I studied Educational Law at a public university and the instruction I received there would disagree with you."

Yet you are a substitute gym teacher......lol

16 mins · Like · 2
Mike Soboren "The prayer was not mandatory"

Irrelevant. You cannot participate, tell students to leave, or hold up class for it to occur.

16 mins · Like · 3
Tom Ace What you should have told the student was, "Class time is not the time to do this." Then, if you felt it necessary, you could have given them a moment of silence to reflect on the situation, which students could then, on their own, decide to pray or not.

16 mins · Like · 1
Dick V Turtle Why do Christians have to get the class time for their prayers too? Isn't it enough they are already allowed clubs before and after school just for this purpose?

15 mins · Like · 1
Mike Soboren "I simply read what the student had already written out"

Right, you participated in a student religious activity. Thank you for admitting you broke the law.

15 mins · Like · 2
Tom Ace I'm sure it wasn't your intent to break the law, but you still broke it.

14 mins · Like · 1
Dick V Turtle If you are so certain what you did was legal, why don't you provide us the school, principal and superintendent's name?

14 mins · Like · 2
Brett Means Why bring the headache.

13 mins · Like
Brett Means ?

13 mins · Like
Chad Brown Why should other kids be forced to leave in order to accommodate your religious beliefs?

Why would you ever place other kids in that position, regardless if no one did so?...See More

13 mins · Edited · Like · 2
Melanie Franklin Bergland Face up to it. What you did was illegal.

13 mins · Like · 2
Dick V Turtle You came here, what did you expect? If you've got the balls, then face our lawyers

13 mins · Like · 2
Brett Means they were dressing for the gym and had to walk to the other end of the school to get to the weight room. releasing them to walk down to the gym so not have to be involved seemed the right thing to do.

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Dick V Turtle "Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men...
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret." - Matt. 6:5-6

12 mins · Like · 3
Chad Brown //I did not lead a prayer in the sense of me praying on my own. I simply read what the student had already written out. It was //

You took an administrative role of how the class structure exists, asking others to participate or leave. You then read allowed the prayer, which is leading the prayer, per your own words.

There is no fuzzy logic here brett, you violated the law.

12 mins · Like · 2
Dick V Turtle There is no backtracking or semantics you can throw at us that would make this okay.

11 mins · Like · 1
Brett Means They were about to walk down anyway. they dress in locker room at one end of school and then walk down to the weight room. Its not like we were in a classroom and I made them leave in middle of class so we could pray. I never would have done that.

11 mins · Edited · Like
Brett Means This event occurred right after they dressed and I took attendance and before they were to walk down to locker room.

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Dick V Turtle What's the difference? You drew the line in the sand and said the students who were different from the majority must go to another area so you could use your position to sponsor a religious activity in a public school.

Did you read my reference above about little gold stars?

9 mins · Like · 1
Chad Brown //hey were dressing for the gym and had to walk to the other end of the school to get to the weight room. releasing them to walk down to the gym so not have to be involved seemed the right thing to do.//

So you're admitting that this was during a class.

9 mins · Like · 2
Brett Means before class actually started.

9 mins · Like
Stephen Moore Technically speaking, you shouldn't have led it. I don't agree with sending away anyone who doesn't want to pray, but I'm not sure if that part's illegal in student-led/organized prayer (when a teacher leads/organizes the prayer, I think it is).

9 mins · Like
Mike Soboren "releasing them to walk down to the gym so not have to be involved seemed the right thing to do."

No, according to your first statement, you told them if they didn't want to participate, they could leave. That is illegal. And to treat your students like that shows a serious lack of professionalism.

9 mins · Like · 1
Andrea Vasquez I am appalled that anyone lets you teach anything. Your spelling is egregious and you grammatically crucified the English language. Now go pray for a brain, go fuck yourself and your cultish superiority complex!

7 mins · Edited · Like
Chad Brown //r they dressed and I took attendance and before //

Which is during class.

9 mins · Like
Tom Ace "before class actually started."

Doesn't matter, you used your position of authority to lead students in prayer.

8 mins · Like
Angela Robbins What saddens me is that you still think you're right. This has already been ruled on by the courts. What you did was illegal, and very disturbing.

8 mins · Like · 4
Andrea Vasquez At least now nobody has to make a complaint since you admitted to breaking the law! Thanks for that!

8 mins · Like · 2
Dick V Turtle Supreme Court Cases Opposing Religious Worship in Schools

McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203, 212 (1948)....See More

8 mins · Like · 1
Chad Brown //before class actually started.//

If it were before class then there would be no reason to lead the prayer or instruct others to leave....See More

7 mins · Edited · Like · 1
Brett Means Mike, you are misinterpreting the statement. I'm giving you the specifics of what happened. yes, they could leave to walk down to the weight room.

7 mins · Like
Brett Means I just didn't include that in the first statement, but it still happened.

7 mins · Like
Angela Robbins You can't pray with the class and students can't compel others to pray. SMDH!

7 mins · Like
Angela Robbins You can't pray with the class and students can't compel others to pray. SMDH!

7 mins · Like
Richard Zsalah Go teach in a fucking parochial school!

7 mins · Like
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