A teacher reprimanded a 5-year-old kindergartner for praying during lunch last month and demanded the child to not pray while in school, Inquisitr reported.
Gabriella, a Florida kindergartner, was stopped from praying by an on-duty teacher, her parents said. But Seminole County Public Schools officials deny the accusation and claim that they have no record of the incident.
A YouTube video was posted last week by Marcos Perez, Gabriella's father, showing the daughter claim that she was told not to pray.
"The lunch teacher said, 'You're not allowed to pray,'" Gabriella said, "I said, 'It's good to pray. She said, 'It's not good," she said in the clip.
"According to the family, the incident took place in the week of March 10, but when the principal of the school, Analynn Jones asked staff who had been in the cafeteria at the time, no one recalled those words being said," Inquisitr reported.
"She wanted to pray, but she's a rule-follower. I told her she did the right thing. I don't doubt for a minute that my daughter is telling the truth," Kathy Perez, the girl's mother, said.
However, the principle stated definitively that no rules or policies were in place that stopped children from praying in school.
"We don't have a policy against student prayer at all," he said.
A striking coincidence pointed out by the Orlando Sentinel was the father's connection to the incident.
Marcos Perez is the "...vice president of sales at Charisma House, a Lake Mary-based Christian book publisher. The company is currently promoting the book 'God Less America: Real Stories from the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values,' by Fox News host Todd Starnes. Starnes reported on the lunch prayer controversy for Fox News Radio," a paper stated.
The school is being sued by the family and being taken to court, Inquisitr reported.
Jeremiah Dys, the family's lawyer, said, "The principal has pretty much dismissed this. Saying a 5-year-old cannot pray over her chicken nuggets and mac-and-cheese isn't in line with the Constitution."
According to Yahoo News, WKMG Local 6 spoke to Michael Lawrence, the communications officer for Seminole County Schools who said, "The situation as stated by the parent has not occurred according to the school's investigation...We're dealing with very young children here so there's quite a bit of an opportunity for miscommunication to occur. The timing and the issues were very odd considering that the first thing that happened was that a video was done, it was on YouTube."
