Morehouse Parish School Board is a

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

headquartered in an

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

area of

Morehouse Parish Morehouse Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 27,979. The parish seat is Bastrop. The parish was formed in 1844. Morehouse Parish comprises the Bastrop, LA Micropolitan Stat ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, near the city of Bastrop, the parish seat. The district serves Morehouse Parish.

Bastrop High School 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. In 2012, Fowler received the Humanist Pioneer Award from the American Humanist Association.

Schools

6-12 schools

* Delta High Schoolbr>
(''Unincorporated area'')

High schools

* Bastrop High School (Louisiana), Bastrop High Schoolbr>
( Bastrop)

K-8 schools

Beekman Junior High School
(''Unincorporated area'')

1-8 schools

Morehouse Magnet School
(Bastrop)

7-8 schools

Morehouse Junior High School
(Bastrop)

PK-6 schools

Henry V. Adams Elementary School
(Bastrop)
Cherry Ridge Elementary School
(''Unincorporated area'')
East Side Elementary School
(Bastrop)
Pine Grove Elementary School
(''Unincorporated area'')
Southside Elementary School
(Bastrop)

3-6 schools

Carver Elementary School
(Bastrop)

PK-2 schools

Oak Hill Elementary School
(Bastrop)

Alternative

Bastrop Learning Academy
(Bastrop)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Morehouse Parish Schools
School districts in Louisiana

School Board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...