In response to a Denver Post editorial (“Florence High School broke rules on religion”),  Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Regional Director Scott L. Levin submitted a letter to the editor of the Denver Post on May 28, 2015, stating:

The Post is to be commended for calling reported religious activities at Florence High School that were allegedly encouraged by school officials “a massive overreach.” The First Amendment allows all of us to freely exercise our religion, but it also prohibits government entities from endorsing religion.  Courts have long held the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause requires certain limits to prayer and other religious activities in public schools. For instance, while student-initiated prayer and other religious activities are permitted in a limited framework, no public school employee may supervise or participate in the activity. Similarly, school officials, employees and outsiders must not offer prayers at assemblies, nor may officials and employees promote or endorse private religious activity by students.

Preservation of the separation of church and state is critical to the preservation of our pluralistic society.  It allows people to exercise their beliefs and to keep government out of them.