This is a story about how as the Arab and Somali population grows in Wisconsin, schools are accommodating Muslim prayer requests even in elementary schools. The article from Green Bay goes on to say that they accommodate Christian and Jewish religious observances too. Others?
Four Muslim students at Keller Elementary School in Green Bay quietly slip out of class or recess each day at about noon to pray in a tiny alcove of the school. For five to 10 minutes, the group of girls is not distracted by students who walk nearby.
“We do it because our parents want us to,” fourth-grader Ayan Artan said. “It’s important.”
The students are part of a growing Somali population in Green Bay. And as that population grows, schools are trying to accommodate the strict prayer schedule for the students, many of whom practice Islam, educators say.
[…..]
A few local residents have approached the Green Bay School District with concerns about the prayer time in schools. They worry the time in prayer takes away from learning and uses school resources to accommodate religion.
But educators say they’re required by law to allow students time and a place to pray or complete other religious practices. They note that the district accommodates Muslim students as well as Christians who choose to pray before meals or read the Bible during study hall.
“The issue of students praying in school has come up a number of times this year, in part, because we have an increasing number of students who practice the Islam faith, many of whom are Somali students,” said Barbara Dorff, director of student services for the district. “But it is our responsibility to find a private place for these students to pray and to allow them to pray.”
School districts that receive federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act funding must certify that they don’t have a policy in public elementary or secondary schools that prevents participation in prayer protected by the U.S. Constitution, she said.
[…..]
It’s been about a year since Keller Elementary School began to accommodate the prayer schedule for Muslim students. It enrolls 34 Somali students out of 189 total students, principal Kim Spychalla said.
Read it all.