LEWISTON — A national Muslim civil rights organization has filed aformal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middleschool student to pray on school property. The group also wantsLewiston to modify existing policy and provide "constitutionallyprotected religious accommodation," such as a designated prayer room.

The group has also requested the school department institutediversity training for school staff, and to ensure the middle-schoolerwon't face retaliation because of her request to pray at the LewistonMiddle School.

According to the Washington, D.C.,-based Council on American-IslamicRelations, seventh-grader Nasra Aden had been routinely "prayingdiscreetly during her free time or lunch break in a corner of a schoolhallway." But, on Tuesday, CAIR asserts a teacher told Aden "never topray on school property" after Aden was seen preparing to kneel inprayer in a corner of one of the hallways.

After Aden told her mother, Jamad Warsame, what happened, Warsamespoke with school Principal Maureen Lachappelle and asked the school toaccommodate her daughter's desire to pray. According to CAIR, Warsame'srequest was rebuffed and she has been "forced to pick up her daughterevery day and take her to a nearby park to pray."

Lachappelle said Aden is not being forced to leave school to pray, butthat the district accommodated her mother's request for her to leavethe campus this past week for prayer.

Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque, who learned of CAIR's writtenaccusations hours after a press release had already been published onvarious Web sites, said, "Students are free to pray quietly duringclass if they choose as long as it's not disruptive," because "prayeris constitutionally protected in schools."

"They can pray audibly or silently," and are subjected to the samerules of order as apply to other students in the school. "We have neverdenied a student's right to pray," he said.

Aden's uncle, Ismail Warsame, who lives in Orono, said Lachappelleand another school official told the family that because the schooldepartment "could not provide a room for Muslims to pray, it wasagainst the school policy for anyone to pray."

Lachappelle disputes that was the department's explanation.

Lachappelle said she told Jamad Warsame that the school departmentcannot provide special prayer rooms for students of any religion, butthat "students certainly have a right to pray in school. We know that'stheir constitutional right."

A lot of kids pray silently in school," Lachappelle said, at theirdesks before a test or during study hall. "We don't promote prayer andwe don't deny" students' right to pray, she said. "We're neutral."

Levesque said that staff is trained to protect the right of studentsto pray, and he's certain many students do pray unnoticed. The districtalso allows religious clubs to meet in school buildings before andafter school, and that students are permitted to be excused from schoolfor religious holidays.

In a written statement, Ismail Warsame called school officials'alleged actions in responding to Aden's effort to pray "a stunningscenario of lack of multicultural competency" and "clear violation ofour constitutional rights to free religious expression."

Warsame also accused Lachappelle of hanging up on him as he wasasking whether the school department would accommodate the family'srequest to accommodate the specific religious needs of certainstudents. Lachappelle acknowledged she did end a phone conversationwith Warsame abruptly because "he wouldn't take no for an answer."

According to Lachappelle, after an involved conversation about theschool's position on allowing silent prayer, she said she told Warsamethat "this is what the ruling is. We're disagreeing, and I'm followingdistrict policy. I feel we need to end this conversation."

CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said Fridaythat if the Lewiston School Department did not address its fourrequests to allow prayer, modify school policy, institute training andprotect Aden from retaliation, "we wouldn't really have much choice butto take the case further" because "the student has the legal right andthe constitutional right to pray in school in a manner that is notdisruptive to the learning environment."

Hooper said no one from CAIR spoke to school officials before filingits four-prong request because it is their general practice to filerequests and then follow up with schools and other organizations toinstitute changes.

jmeyer@sunjournal.com