Group protests Ensign's vote for school prayer

Eldorado High School theater and speech teacher Lori Lipman Brown doesn't want Congress changing the U.S. Constitution to allow prayer in her classroom.

"This opens the door to bringing religion into the public schools," Lipman Brown said.

Brown, a former Democratic state senator, raised the prayer issue during the 1993 legislative session. She argued that taxpayer dollars should not be used to pay clergy brought in to say the traditional morning prayer at the start of the daily sessions. Brown, who is Jewish, also requested that the prayers reflect a nondenominational theme and when that request was not granted, walked out on prayers in which Jesus Christ was mentioned and prayed alone outside the chambers.

Many political observers say the prayer issue led to Brown's defeat for the District 7 seat in 1994 at the hands of Sen. Kathy Augustine, R-Las Vegas.

Thursday, Brown joined 10 protesters -- mostly teachers and several high school students -- outside the Las Vegas office of Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev.

Ensign voted earlier this month in support of a constitutional amendment that would allow prayer in public schools. Ensign's vote fell in the majority of House representatives, who voted 224-203 to approve the amendment. But the amendment failed, 61 votes shy of a two-thirds majority required.

Currently, students say the Pledge of Allegiance and observe 30 seconds of silence for optional prayer. Ensign in the past has said the amendment was unnecessary for that reason.

The small band of protesters outside Ensign's office, calling themselves Students and Teachers Advocating Religious Tolerance, or START, were upset Ensign supported the amendment after panning it for years.

"My elected official changed on me," Ken Christmas, Eldorado math and science teacher and leader of the group, said.

Ensign has said his vote was not inconsistent. He said the courts have misinterpreted the constitution by not allowing prayers at high school graduations. He said the amendment would help protect student-led prayer.

"We can pray in the Supreme Court, in the U.S. House, in Carson City, in the Las Vegas City Council, and we can't ever mention God in a prayer at a high school graduation?" Ensign said from Washington, D.C., after the Las Vegas protest.

Ensign also said the protest was engineered by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. Ensign is running against Reid for his seat in the Senate.

"This is pure politics," Ensign said.

Reid's campaign leaders in Las Vegas denied that.

"We have other things to do without engineering a little protest in front of (Ensign's) office," Scott McCullers, a communications worker on Reid's campaign staff, said.

Students at the protest said they didn't want any hint of prayer at school or school events.

"The 30 seconds (of silence) is a perfect compromise," Green Valley senior Jessica Bedford said. "There is no reason to change."

Sixteen-year-old Michael Anderson, who will be a Green Valley High School senior added, "The separation of church and state has been there since our founding fathers."

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