ACLJ Wins Victory for Teacher To Have Right To Pray at the Pole

The ACLJ has achieved a major victory via an interim settlement for our client Staci Barber, securing her right to pray at the school flagpole this week for See You at the Pole. We have been fighting in federal court to defend her right to pray after she was banned from praying anywhere students could see her last year. And we have now achieved a major victory in our lawsuit. We have reached an agreement that allows her to pray at the school flagpole tomorrow.

Staci Barber is a teacher in Katy, Texas. She has prayed at the pole every year for students for See You at the Pole. In 2023 she gathered with two friends and fellow teachers to pray at the school flagpole. The school principal called these teachers into his office. He told them that they could not pray at the pole or in the presence of students because students might see and join in. He told them that it was against the law for them to pray publicly where students could see them, and he wouldn’t even let them pray in the school parking lot because students might see them there also.

We achieved our victory on her behalf earlier this summer when the judge ruled that since the school has updated its policy in response to our demand letter, “at present . . . there is no language in the Employee Handbook that explicitly prohibits praying in the presence of students.” This ruling effectively prevented the school from violating our client’s right to pray even if students might see her, and it was a major step forward in protecting her right to pray.

But what was still unresolved was whether our client could pray at the pole as she desired or if the school district would find some other reason to deny her the chance to pray. While the judge had limited the policy, our client’s right to exercise her faith was still not established or properly defined. Our case remains ongoing as we seek to completely defend our client’s First Amendment rights.

As the case proceeded, we scheduled depositions of our client’s principal and a representative from the school district. These depositions would be a crucial opportunity to directly confront them about the policy and hear in their own words what their policy means. We could ask them thorough questions about what they did and said. We flew to Texas, prepared to gather evidence from these witnesses, and began establishing our case of confronting them about what their policy meant.

But right before the depositions began, the school district finally reached an agreement with us to allow our client to pray for See You at the Pole. The school district agreed to allow our client to pray at a different time than when the official student group is scheduled to pray, which is what our client had sought in the first place, and in a signed agreement in writing agreed for her to pray at the pole and to hold a regular Bible study she has conducted with fellow teachers.

This case is far from over. This agreement we reached was a partial, interim agreement, and we still need to work out with the other side the full details of a proper and full settlement that protects our client moving forward. But our client will be able to exercise her rights to pray at the pole this year and not be told to stop just because a student might happen to see her. We will continue to fight to make this agreement permanent. We need your support to continue the fight.