Criminal Contempt Charges Unsealed In Santa Rosa School Prayer Case

Yesterday's Pensacola (FL) News Journal reported that a federal judge on Monday unsealed criminal contempt charges against a high school principal and its athletic director who are charged with ignoring an injunction against faculty-led prayer. In January, nine days after U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Santa Rosa County (FL) School District officials from promoting prayers during school-sponsored events, principal Frank Lay asked athletic director Robert Freeman to lead a prayer at the beginning of a luncheon at Pace High School. Lay was one of the named defendants in the lawsuit that led to a consent decree enjoining prayer at school activities and barred school personnel from promoting their own religious beliefs at school. Another contempt action, brought by the ACLU, is pending against a school district clerk who enlisted her husband to offer a prayer at a school banquet. (See prior posting.)