Pace principal, athletic director face criminal charges for prayer
PACE (FBW)-A court order banning employees from praying – at any time or at any place – in the Santa Rosa County School District has resulted in criminal contempt charges against Pace High School Principal Frank Lay, a member of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, and the school's athletic director, Robert Freeman.
Both school administrators may face jail time if a federal judge rules they violated a court order issued Jan. 9 forbidding promotion of "religious prayers during school-sponsored events."
Orlando-based Liberty Counsel is representing both men, according to Mathew D. Staver, the organization's founder, who told Florida Baptist Witness that last year the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the school district claiming some teachers and administrators "endorsed" religion.
The Santa Rosa County School district, according to Staver, complied with the ACLU's...