In 2008, Houma Parish School Board President Don Carpenter proposed that an invocation be offered before each and every school board meeting by a school board member, and that policy was adopted in early 2009.

 

The invocation has always been a generic Christian prayer. It is offered by a member of the school board. It is always given within the first ten minutes of a meeting. The audience is always asked to rise and bow their heads, but no individual has been castigated for failing to do so, or pressured to alter their behavior, in the school board meeting itself. There is evidence that school board members do make note of who has failed to stand and have discussed with those individuals their motivations for failing to do so, along with methods to increase participation in the invocation.

The parties to this suit are Marie Gross, mother of Josephine Jackson, and Louis Nguyen. Jackson, a self-described “independent thinker,” is a student who is a near-constant presence at school board meetings. She has been repeatedly questioned by School Board President Carpenter about her refusal to bow her head during invocation.

 

The plaintiffs sued the school district and its adult board members in their official capacities, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and its state law counterpart, alleging violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that Defendants’ conduct of prayers at board meetings violates Plaintiffs’ rights under the Constitution, a permanent injunction enjoining the Board and its members from continuing to violate Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights, and nominal damages for past constitutional violations.