As I have said many times, there is nothing to keep kids--or adults--from praying in school. They can do it silently. And as I have said before, when I taught seated classes, I am sure that some of my students prayed before tests.

@Gwen_Wanderer Of course they can pray, just not state-led prayers of a particular faith or non-faith. Just another lie that Republicans use to scare the gullible who are always afraid of something.

@nogod4me they can do it silently. After all, the NT says to go into a closet and pray. Jesus hears those silent prayers just as well as the ones spoken aloud. However, there is no reason why the rest of us need to hear them as they are not directed at us.

@Gwen_Wanderer "Jesus hears", ...that is funny.

@nogod4me of course it is!

When I was a grad student, another student left her textbooks (which were, of course, quite expensive) in a public place. She said that she had prayed all the way back to wherever she left them, saying over and over, "Jesus, please let my books still be there." They were still there and (of course) she attributed this to her repeated prayers. I did not point out that her assumption was a logical fallacy. If it worked for her [sic], then it should work for others.

And why did she have to say it over and over? Didn't god hear her the first time?

@Gwen_Wanderer Yes, of course, the religious mind has much to "pick and choose" from.

I have dealt with the religious and cult mind for over 40 years. The Bible is one of the reasons for their cognitive dissonance. Here is the mind trap your fellow student fell into, evidently, she picked the latter solution:

"And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words." - Matthew 6:7

Then in just the next chapter:

"Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you". - Matthew 7:7

Here are more:

In other verses, Jesus rebukes his disciples because of their “little faith” (Matthew 8:26) and then tells them that if they had “little faith” it would work (Matthew 17:20).

Jesus also tells his disciples to basically take “leaps of faith” (John 20:29) and then when they fail they can be accused of “tempting god” (Matthew 4:7).

You might enjoy this test I created for those who would like to know how much they have been indoctrinated:
[agnostic.com]

@nogod4me one reason why I left Xtianity was because of the contradictions in the Bible. For a long time, I accepted the explanations give to me about them, but at one point, I simply could no longer accept the platitudes. The contradictions go deeper than the passages about prayer, i.e. there are two versions of creation which contradict each other. There are two accounts of how many pairs of animals to be taken on the ark. The pastor at my church accounted for the differences in passages in the Xtian Scriptures by saying people "see" things differently. I agree that we do, but in case of Biblical account of the resurrection, one would think that all saw the the same things so they wouldn't sound hypocritical.

@nogod4me Other contradictions, Paul supposedly said that women should not teach men, but Priscilla and her husband taught Apollos.

I say "supposedly" as this could have been a much later edit per what he said. Regardless, the verse is still used to prevent women from teaching men in church.

Also, "Thou shalt not kill" is either a mistranslation, typo, or is a contradiction. I have read where it should be "not murder." The Jews certainly had no problem slaughtering people in war, including people who were not soldiers, i.e. women who had sex with men (the virgins were to be spared). Killing innocent women is murder, as is killing the young boys. If killing people in war is allowed, the commandment should be amended.

The Hebrew Scriptures say that the dead know nothing, but it was forbidden to consult the dead as did the "Witch" of Endor. If they know and feel nothing, how can they be consulted? And she was not a "witch"--the Jews had no word or conception of witches as we know them. This was a deliberate mistranslation per the order of King James when he had the Bible translated into English. She was a seer.