Another way of saying it is that "organized school prayer" is illegal, even if they don't twist arms. It has to do with whether government led prayer qualifies as a 1st amendment violation. The first amendment forbids Congress to create an establishment of religion in America. Supreme Court Interpretation has expanded that via "seperation of church and state"-a phrase from the writings of Thomas Jefferson, to mean that governments can not actively encourage or endorse religion.

There's also the clause permiting free religious expression of course. From the point of view a Supreme Court Justice, it has to do with whether or not you take the literal meaning of a very short phrase. A pure literal meaning would mean that the first amendment had nothing to do with what schools could do at all of course, but the 14th amendment has been used to expand the protections to all levels of government.

From my point of view, and most other people, we see it in terms of our religious beliefs, and what we see as the better way to manage our nation's schools.

Mark"Geniunely surprised about mp3's not being on the list"N