Bernie Rose, Interviews with Jews in Utah, Accn 998

Page 49

Rose (1/20/83) page 7 Mr. K Mr. R Mr. K Mr. R Mr. K ~r. R Mr. K Mr. B Which were the two? Granite and Salt Lake •• to find that the ~rtncipals really themselves did not know what was going on in their school, plus once they found out, they didn't know how far they could go or how far they should go. They had no directive from the sunertntendants themselves. Well, that was rapidly corrected in the Salt Lake City School Dis­ttct. By the ti~e I l~ft, there was no principal who didn't have some concept of where he was headed and what he could do. You said ~ Berkman gave the moral approach and you laid down the law, that is to say ••• Well, I told them what the law was, that's what my speech was. What did you tell them? Oh, good Lord, now you're asking for a lecture on the law. Just a little. Well, in the first place, you start with the 1st amendment of the constitution of the United States, and as I remember that essen~ · tially ~ says congress shall pass no law respecting an estab­lishment of religion nor prohibit the free exercice thereof. You see, which is the freedom of religion in the individual on the one hand and the fact that a governmental body can't prohibit its free exercise ••• a governmental body cannot establish a religion in and of itself •• shall not pass any law respecting any establish­ment of religion. Now, when you get to the area of what's meant by an establishment of religion, it ultimately was determined by the supreme court that there be no prayer in schools, that the state can't furnish a prayer even though it's nondenominational for the schools,~hat's the New York case that the federal govern-