Bastrop High School is a senior high school in Bastrop, Louisiana, United States. It is a part of the

Morehouse Parish School Board Morehouse Parish School Board is a school district headquartered in an unincorporated area of Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, United States, near the city of Bastrop, the parish seat. The district serves Morehouse Parish. Bastrop High School pra ...

History

In 2006 Bastrop High had an undefeated American football team season, but on August 28, 2006, the

Louisiana High School Athletic Association The Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) is the agency that regulates and promotes the interscholastic athletic competitions of all high schools in the state of Louisiana. Organization LHSAA was founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in ...

removed the school's title, arguing that it had improperly contacted and transported players from

Port Sulphur, Louisiana Port Sulphur is a census-designated place (CDP) on the West Bank of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States; at the 2020 census, it had a population of 1,677. Etymology The name for the CDP derives from the Freepo ...

who had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Prayer controversy

In 2011, graduating senior Damon Fowler objected to

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...

at the Bastrop High School graduation exercises, claiming a looming violation of the

First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, th ...

. The ACLU of Louisiana asked the school not to include a prayer in the May 20 graduation. At the Thursday night rehearsal for the graduation, senior Sarah Barlow included a prayer that explicitly mentioned

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

, and during the graduation, student Laci Rae Mattice led people in the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

before a moment of silence. The school says that Mattice was told not to include a prayer. Fowler stated that after his objections became public he was ostracized by other students.

Notable alumni

References

education in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana public high schools in Louisiana {{Louisiana-school-stub