CHICAGO - When high school freshman Dawn Sherman learned that Illinois had a law requiring public schools to provide a moment of silence each day for "reflection and student prayer," she was outraged.
Not because the law meant lost learning time in her honors math class - which would be 15 seconds shorter - but because "it was clear that we're supposed to sit and pray, or sit and watch other people pray," said Sherman, who is an atheist.
Along with her father, Rob, the Buffalo Grove High student has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law, which some Illinois school boards have raced to embrace and others have defied.
"I don't go to school to talk to God," she said. "I'm in school to learn."...
Dr. Bill Jones | 6/18/2008
