School Prayer: Who Participates in 'See You at the Pole'?

"See You at the Pole" is a student-initiated and student-led event that organizes a "Global Day of Student Prayer" for schools across the country and across the world on the fourth Wednesday of every September.

SYATP began in 1990 with a mere 10 students who prayed at their school, according to SYATP’s official website. Now, 25 years later, millions gather to pray at their schools each year on that day, as well as for the ongoing Global Week of Student Prayer that runs from Sept. 20 – Sept. 26 of this year.

The purpose of this event is for Bible-believing Christian students to take initiative in planning and publicizing SYATP while providing an opportunity for their peers to pray for the students, teachers, and schools across the world.

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SYATP participants seek to raise awareness of the need for prayer while offering Christians the chance to witness to their peers and explain why they are gathering at the flag pole to pray on that day.

Any Christian student may participate in SYATP, and a myriad of organizations support this event, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, Campus Crusade for Christ, Christianity Today Magazine, the Salvation Army, the National Legal Foundation, Eastern University, and Young Life, amongst many others.

Because contemporary legal issues concern the separation of church and state detailed in the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, as well as religious freedom and toleration, many SYATP advocates support this event especially when public school administrators seek to discourage the students form participating.

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“Christian students should not be prevented from peacefully expressing their beliefs at school. They don’t abandon their constitutional freedoms at the schoolhouse gate,” said Senior Counsel David Cortman of the Alliance Defending Freedom. “Misinformed public school officials should understand that the Constitution protects students who wish to promote or participate in 'See You at the Pole.'"

The National Legal Foundation also seeks to defend why the U.S. Constitution does allow for students to participate in SYATP, despite opposition, and with further Court precedential support.

“In the early years of See You at the Pole, some schools apparently felt that allowing their students to gather for prayer on school property might violate the Establishment Clause,” the website states. “However, a broad consensus quickly developed within the legal and educational communities that See You at the Pole posed no constitutional problem.”

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