Parents angered by prayer mural ruling

CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) - The mood was angry outside Cranston High School West Thursday, after a controversial court ruling demanding the removal of a decades-old prayer mural in the high school auditorium.

"I think it's a hell of a mess that one person can do that," one man told Eyewitness News, one day after a teenage atheist won her court battle to have the mural taken down.

16-year-old Jessica Ahlquist is a junior at Cranston West.  She sued the city and the school committee, backed by the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and won.

"I'm so glad and proud the right decision was made," Ahlquist said during a news conference Thursday, in regards to a federal court ruling Wednesday that ordered the banner removed immediately.

"This country was founded to be a secular country," she continued. "We're supposed to keep church and state separate so that people can have their rights and their freedom to choose. And I think that this lawsuit is a reflection of that."

But parents outside Cranston West Thursday were signing a much different tune.

"I think that they need to look at the whole population of the school and not just one girl's opinion," said one woman who wished not to be identified.

"They don't believe in prayer," explained another man, upset with the decision. "So if we take it down, we just lost our prayer, didn't we? And they won. Because now their prayer is on the wall, which is nothing."

The Cranston School Committee is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to appeal the judge's ruling.  For now, the mural is still up, but the auditorium where it hangs is temporarily off-limits.

The mural was presented by the Class of 1963, the first class to graduate from Cranston High School West.

Related: Text of Cranston West Prayer Banner