Last week, school bus driver George Nathaniel III was fired for leading hid passengers in prayer each morning after his company repeatedly asked him to stop, CBS Local reports. Nathaniel, a 49-year-old Christian pastor, told the Star Tribune that he wanted to give the children "something constructive and positive to go to school with."
"We start out with a song," he told the local newspaper. "Then each person will pray if they want to pray. If they don't want to pray, they don't have to pray. Then I will pray and ask them if they want to join me in prayer."
Nathaniel is a pastor for several Minneapolis, Minn. churches, and until now, worked for bus company Durham School Services. After the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district complained to his employer, he was assigned to two new bus routes, but continued leading his audience in morning prayers, which he claims he did not force on anyone.
"I let them know I am a pastor and I am going to pray," he said. "A couple of routes I had children that chose not to pray and that was fine."
On Oct. 30, Nathaniel was issued a formal letter from his company, which read: "There have been more complaints of religious material on the bus as well as other complaints regarding performance. In accordance with the previous final written warning you received, your employment is hereby terminated."
Nathaniel felt his freedom of speech had been violated, insisting that no parent had complained to him, and that he had only heard complaints from the school district.
"To fire a bus driver for praying for the safety of the children [is not right]," he said to the Star Tribune. "They are trying to take away every right the Christian has to express our Christian belief in this supposed to have been Christian nation."
But according to American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota (ACLU) legal director, Teresa Nelson, Nathaniel did infringe on the First Amendment rights of his student passengers, violating the Establishment Clause by bringing religion into a school setting.
"The school bus is a captive audience," she told CBS Local. "When he is driving the bus he is acting like a school official and he does not have the right to proselytize or promote religion in that context," adding that otherwise, "he's got a right to his own religion."
Durham spokeswoman Molly Hart told the Star Tribune that "the company does not have a specific policy on the subject of prayer."
