By Joseph M. Morgan
joseph@southerntorch.com
“They all met together and were constantly UNITED in prayer.”
—Acts 1:14
Students, teachers, and community members throughout DeKalb County gathered on Wednesday morning for the annual “See You At The Pole” prayer time. These DeKalb students were part of millions who gathered around flag poles on school campuses across the country to pray at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning.
According to the Supreme Court, school-sponsored prayer is unconstitutional. However student-led prayer such as those demonstrated Wednesday is protected as free speech.
According to Supreme Court precedent and their constitutional rights, students already have permission to host See You at the Pole because it is student-led, before school hours, and outside of any school building. It does not cost the district anything financially for students to meet and pray, so they aren’t using tax dollars for religious purposes.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of See You at the Pole. At 7:00 a.m. on September 12, 1990, more than 45,000 teenagers met at school flagpoles in four different states to pray before the start of school. Reports came into toll-free number for days after the first event.
A few months later, a group of youth ministers from all over the country gathered together for a national conference in Colorado. Many of them reported that their students had heard about the prayer movement in Texas and were equally burdened for their schools. No other events had been planned, but it was clear that students across the country would be creating their own national day of student prayer. There was no stopping them.
On September 11, 1991, at 7:00 a.m., an estimated one million students gathered at school flagpoles all over the country. From Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California, from North Dakota to the tip of Texas, students came together to pray. Some sang, some read Scripture, but most importantly, they prayed. Like those first students, they prayed for their schools, for their friends, for their leaders, and for their country. See You at the Pole has grown every single year since.