School Board not Following Policies Regarding Prayer (published 2/27/2025)

Dear editor,

On January 25, you published my letter commending the McDowell Board of Education for their consideration of the motion by a newly elected member to replace the moment of silence at their meetings with an invocation. Please remove my letter from your website. I mistakenly believed the Board would undertake a serious, Constitutional review of this motion.  

On January 27 I attended the Board working session. Their attorney reviewed the legal implications and parameters for a non-sectarian invocation. I expected discussion at the next Board meeting.

There was no discussion. “Invocation” was on the February 10 agenda. Those attending were told we could pray, meditate, or think, but it was difficult to do so while the same newly elected member prayed to his lord.

Board Policy 3516: “School administrators and teachers may not organize or encourage prayer in the classrooms …. The right of religious expression in school does not include the right to have a captive audience listen, or to compel other students to participate.” Have they read their own policies?

For 30 minutes on February 10, Old Fort Elementary parents described the poor conditions OFE students are enduring in the basement of Pleasant Gardens Elementary and questioned delays and lack of transparency regarding OFE reconstruction. Another citizen pointed out poor school performance, teacher position vacancies and risks to federal funding as areas that should concern the board, not the invocation and book banning that had occupied their first 90 days.  

McDowell students deserve better.

Anna Link Caldwell

Marion