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WS/FCS ends practice of nonsecular prayer in school board meetings

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education has ended its practice of opening meetings with nonsecular prayer.

The move came after the district received a letter from the national nonprofit, Freedom From Religion Foundation. 

The organization asked that the board stop opening meetings with Christian prayers, and called the practice unconstitutional. 

In an email to WFDD, a spokesperson for the school district said the board disagreed with that claim, but did decide to start its meetings in other ways. 

Board Member Susan Miller, who had led the prayers previously, said this at the last meeting: 

“Our motivational quote for tonight is by Michael Jordan," she said. "I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”

The board may also offer a moment of silence, a secular prayer or other means of “setting the tone for a productive school board meeting."

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.

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