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5th grader's prayers get answered

5th grader's prayers get answered


5th grader's prayers get answered

A Seattle-area school has changed course and will now allow an interfaith prayer club on its campus.

As AFN reported last month, Issaquah Washington School District initially denied a fifth grader's request to start the club at Creekside Elementary School.

Toney, Kayla (First Liberty) Toney

"It is a great win for our client and for religious liberty," says attorney Kayla Toney of First Liberty Institute. "Just a few weeks after we sent a demand letter to the school explaining how the First Amendment protects our client's ability to pray at school, the school reversed course, and now they are allowing our client, Laura, and her sister to start their prayer club."

According to First Liberty, the school actively promotes more than a dozen non-religious clubs, including a Pride Club and the Green Team. Meanwhile, the principal was resistant to Laura's interfaith club that would be open to students of the various religions that exist in her ethnically diverse part of the state.

"They'll have their first meeting in just a couple of weeks, and she's already inviting her Muslim friends, Latter Day Saints, Christian, [and] Jewish friends," Toney reports. "Faith is what motivates her to make her community a better place, so my hope is that having multiple meetings this spring will really improve the school environment and make it a friendlier place for students of faith."

Community service projects are also planned.