{"id":1680,"date":"2009-09-18T16:55:14","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T16:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac.php"},"modified":"2009-09-18T16:55:14","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T16:55:14","slug":"update-fla-school-officials-ac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac","title":{"rendered":"Update: Fla. School Officials Acquitted on Prayer Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RNS) A Florida judge acquitted two Florida school officials Thursday (Sept. 17) of charges they broke the terms of an order that was meant to prevent faculty-led prayer at public school events.
\nPrincipal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman were cleared of criminal charges that could have led to a fine or six months in jail. Both men work in the Santa Rosa County school system in northern Florida.
\nMathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and a lawyer who defended the men, said the case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union resulted in the officials being treated like criminals for blessing a meal at a luncheon off school property.
\n“For a moment I felt I must be watching a futuristic movie filled with hyperbole about how it might one day be if we lose our liberties,”
\nhe said.
\nIn January, the men reached a settlement with the ACLU which charged they had been involved in “egregious First Amendment violations.”
\nU.S. District Judge M. Case Rodgers ruled that the prayer in question was spontaneous and did not violate the order, the Pensacola News-Journal reported.
\nA third school employee, secretary Michelle Winkler, was cleared on similar charges last month; she was accused of arranging for her husband, who is not a school employee, to read a prayer she had written for an Employee of the Year banquet.
\nBy Adelle M. Banks
\nCopyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RNS) A Florida judge acquitted two Florida school officials Thursday (Sept. 17) of charges they broke the terms of an order that was meant to prevent faculty-led prayer at public school events. Principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman were cleared of criminal charges that could have led to a fine or six months…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nUpdate: Fla. School Officials Acquitted on Prayer Charges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Update: Fla. School Officials Acquitted on Prayer Charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(RNS) A Florida judge acquitted two Florida school officials Thursday (Sept. 17) of charges they broke the terms of an order that was meant to prevent faculty-led prayer at public school events. Principal Frank Lay and athletic director Robert Freeman were cleared of criminal charges that could have led to a fine or six months…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-18T16:55:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Update: Fla. School Officials Acquitted on Prayer Charges","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Update: Fla. 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School Officials Acquitted on Prayer Charges","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-18T16:55:14+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-18T16:55:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/09\/update-fla-school-officials-ac#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Update: Fla. School Officials Acquitted on Prayer Charges"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. 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