Christian grads practicing "civil disobedience"

This story will make the rabid secularists' teeth grind:

Despite ruling, prayer recited at graduation

A federal judge blocked a southern Kentucky high school yesterday from including prayers in its graduation ceremony, prompting students to begin reciting the Lord's Prayer during the opening remarks.

About 200 students interrupted the principal's comments with the prayer, drawing thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the crowd.

Earlier in the day, a judge banned prayers from the ceremony in response to a lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit sought a restraining order on behalf of an unidentified student at Russell County High School in Russell Springs, 90 miles south of Louisville.

Later in the ceremony, senior Megan Chapman told the crowd that God had guided her since childhood. She was interrupted repeatedly by cheering as she urged her classmates to trust in God as they go through life.

Superintendent Scott Pierce said he was pleased with the students' response to the ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that clergy-led prayer in public school graduations and sporting events is prohibited.

Good for them!

Oh, and the student behind the lawsuit actually ISN'T "unidentified":

A federal judge in Louisville, Kentucky, granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting a prayer from being said during graduation ceremonies at an area high school after a Muslim student on the planning committee objected and garnered the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Arshiya Saiyed, a senior at Shelby County High School, said she was working on plans for the ceremony, scheduled for last night, with the senior panel when the issue came up, according to WHAS-TV in Louisville.

"Terms like Jesus Christ, heavenly father, I talked about the fact I was Muslim and the prayers in the past were offensive to me," the 17-year-old said.

A Muslim. No kidding... So why do you suppose the media would want to lie (via omission) about that fact? Perhaps they're worried that this student will end up like Salman Rushdie and have President Bush putting a multi-million dollar bounty on her head. (Only in the secularists' dreams would that happen, of course.)

And just in case any of you lurking liberals thinks this is a case of WorldNetDaily tracking down her name in some VRWC plot to attack her somehow:

Student questions constitutionality of prayer

06:09 PM EDT on Thursday, May 18, 2006

Arshiya Saiyed is one of those girls that seems to get everything done in a day: school, volunteering, extra curriculars.

[Use username "jbsmith23@aol.com" and password "johnny" to log in to that article. Other usernames and passwords for that and other sites available at BugMeNot.]

The WND article was posted the next day.

UPDATE: I - unlike the people behind and supporting the false Rove indictment story - can admit when I'm wrong. As Stop the ACLU's Jay points out, these are actually two similar cases from different schools. Odd that they're both in Kentucky, though, isn't it?