Norfolk teachers complain about prayer before SOLs

NORFOLK

Teachers told the state that Oakwood Elementary School's principal urged them to join with students in praying before a Standards of Learning test in February.

The Oakwood teachers said they were "instructed by the principal to hold hands and pray and contribute to prayer before the administration of the writing tests," Charles Pyle, a state Department of E ducation spokesman, said. The teachers reported "being compelled or at least feeling they were compelled to participate."

Pyle said the state forwarded the information to the Norfolk schools' central administration as a possible infringement of legal guidelines on religious activity at public schools. He did not say how many teachers complained.

"Some lines were being crossed and Norfolk public schools needed to be aware of this," he said. "We would have been negligent if we hadn 't passed this on."

Principal Sheila Tillett Holas has headed Oakwood for four of her 15 years with the Norfolk school division. In 2009, she won the U.S. Department of Education's Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership.

Holas did not respond to a message left at her Oakwood office on Friday.

The incidents of prayer were reported by teachers who were interviewed March 8 and 9 by the state as part of the Department of Education's division wide effort to train Norfolk educators in how to conduct SOL tests properly.

That technical assistance was offered by the state after revelations that several Norfolk schools violated state testing guidelines for the SOL and an alternative test, the Virginia Grade Level Assessment, last year.

Pyle said the teachers who complained about prayer before the SOL test also reported that "there was involvement in the school of the principal's pastor to a degree that some of the teachers interviewed felt was inappropriate, with teachers being instructed to participate in prayer services."

"The pastor of her church was a frequent visitor to the school to deliver what a teacher described as sermons and conduct prayer sessions," he said, responding to a query on Oakwood from The Virginian-Pilot. Pyle did not know the pastor's name.

Superintendent Stephen Jones could not be reached directly Friday. But division spokeswoman Elizabeth Thiel Mather said in an e-mail that Jones acted after receiving the state's complaint.

Jones found that a Bible study group that met at Oakwood before school hours was voluntary, Thiel Mather said. The division is consulting with the c ity a ttorney's office to ensure that the Bible study group's activities are in line with School Board policy and applicable laws.

Additionally, "Principal Sheila Holas had on one occasion accepted two students' invitation to pray with them before a test," Thiel Mather said.

Thiel Mather noted that Norfolk public schools' administrators are barred from requiring any particular religious expression, activity or meeting. She said local ministry leaders are among the division's "valued partners" in the community.

The state's official guidelines for religious activity allow teachers to meet with other teachers for private religious speech, including prayer, before and after class, as well as during lunch breaks and free time.

However, the guidelines bar teachers from leading students in devotional activities during class or a school-sponsored activity. Teachers cannot encourage students to participate with the teacher in religious activity before or after school.

The guidelines also forbid schools from giving outside individuals special access to students during the school day "for purposes of proselytizing or distributing proselytizing literature to students."

Last month, the state received an allegation that some Oakwood students were intentionally excluded from Standards of Learning history tests in certain grades. The state uses SOL tests to determine whether a school should be accredited. Oakwood is fully accredited.

Thiel Mather said Friday that the division determined that all Oakwood students were accounted for during that testing. The division is waiting to learn whether the state will accept that report.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com