See You At The Pole Wednesday

Special Report - September 24, 2012
Wednesday will mark the 22nd annual See You at the Pole (SYATP), where students across the world, including in North Carolina, will meet at their campus flagpoles to pray. This year’s student-led, student initiated event has chosen the theme “Awaken,” based on the Scripture verse Ephesians 3:14-21. Elementary, middle, and high school students at private and public schools plan to meet at 7:00 a.m. in front of their respective flagpoles to pray for their families, friends, teachers, schools, and nation.

SYATP, coordinated by the National Network of Youth Ministries and supported by dozens of other ministries and organizations, started in 1990 when 10 Texas students joined each other for a morning prayer at their school. Since then, more than 3 million students in more than 20 countries each year continue the tradition of meeting at their school flagpoles, recently choosing to meet on the fourth Wednesday in September.

The SYATP website emphasizes that the annual prayer event is legal. “The right of students to gather and pray outside of instructional time—while at school—is clearly a Constitutionally protected form of free speech,” the SYATP website states, noting that 1995 guidelines drafted by the U.S. Department of Education on “religious expression at public schools” specifically mention student participation in SYATP.

For more information about “See You at the Pole 2010,” including promotional and planning materials, visit the web site at www.syatp.com.

Related resources:
No Need to Censor Legislative Prayers - February 14, 2012
ACLU Targets Prayer At Legislature - February 6, 2012
Report Documents Religious Hostility - August 27, 2012
Prayer At National Cemeteries Upheld - October 21, 2011
Time to See You At the Pole - September 20, 2010
NCFPC Joins Prayer Brief - July 7, 2010
NCFPC Supports Prayer Policy - June 14, 2010
SYATP 20th Anniversary - September 22, 2009
Participation in SYATP Constitutional - September 22, 2008
Americans Support Religious Expression - January 17, 2008
Students to Unite in Prayer "At the Pole" - September 19, 2007
Religious Freedom in Our Public Schools - FNC Sep/Oct 2006

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